Preface, part 2 Ember

The room was filled with the cheerful dances of day. The windows welcomed the sun and savored the light. The dresses flowed and mingled as the dancers laughed with their partners. The food was quickly being eaten as they stopped for breaks. The total majesty of the room was powerful and superfluous to regular expectations. Roses trimmed the edges and corners of everything in sight. The Glory even had some in her hair. Caretakers rushed about with their trays of golden goblets to hand to the resting. They drank the straspberry juices deeply and cackled with natural humor in their eyes. The bachelors kissed the hands of their dates as they entered the scene. The ladies giggled with much meaning. Mostly of how silly the hand maidens of the Glory looked at such an event. However, the maidens were completely oblivious. 1

They had gathered for the Glory. She was going to become Magnificence at dawn, if she made it through the night. The velvet carpet under her bare feet was truly a divine gift, she thought. Her slim, white gown made her features stand out and demand that she be noticed as Glory. But the circlet of silver on her brow said she was a Magnificence-to-be. When she was born she was pronounced kindle. When she learned how to read she became Ember. Then as she passed her thirteenth year, flame. Then Star. The small crown held three large diamonds that looked and felt like tears. The middle crystal was the largest. She favored this tiara the most of her many items of fancy and wealth. The dancers below her did not know of the impending danger that she had been taught to see within a second glance. The little providers had to look through the bronze scope every time they needed to know her knowledge. She grinned with much smugness and fluffed her skirts. 2

The sun started to drop closer to the small hills decked with trees and lakes. 3

A boy rushed up the carved staircase and glimpsed into a looking glass that was fixed to the wall. It pointed down to the floor, but it saw all. He gasped and signaled to the other provider. Glory felt the tension from the providers and looked to the windows. She gasped. They also looked into the golden rod. After a look they flew up the stairs to the ceiling. A crank that opened and closed the sun window was ready and waiting. They turned as fast as they could, raising the shudder to the glass. 4

Under them some of the ladies that were addressed to look up during the current dance gaped and stopped their partner. Looks of the gentry told the providers to quicken their turning. But they weren’t quick enough. The sun sunk into the horizon. 5

A gushing sound filled the air. Some of the men coughed as they tried to keep from changing. The women didn’t know if they men that they had chosen were Visionaries. A finely dressed woman screamed as she saw the dark of the night fall through the open windows. The providers were red faced as they desperately tried to turn the cranks fast enough. The dark swallowed the light of the candles that lit the room so very cozily. They were blinded without the light of day. The black continued to surround and search for every last drop of brightness that was in the castle. 6

The Glory fingered her necklace bobble. It was the only thing that was shining. It illuminated a brilliant white glow. She held it up to the window. 7

Illumination forbiddendetial shuntchock wickers 8

The Glory prayed frantically. If it didn’t work it would be the first time that the prayer wasn’t answered. The darkness was swirling towards her and her glowing pendant. Her throne was forced into the serving cavern behind her. She gulped down her final fear of the night. 9

“Illumination Forbiddetial Shuntchock Wickers!” The Glory shrieked to the growing funnel. “I am Magnificence! You will obey me!” she cried. The black only spun faster and harder. She fell backwards and landed on her overturned throne. She blacked out from the pain of the landing. Dark Visionaries started to slip their hoods over their brows to cover their eyes. The Visionary that had a blue trim on the crown snatched the choker from her hands. 10

“Darkness is rising, let freedom fall,” he spat near her head. He whirled and raised the crystal high above his head to the other Visionaries. 11

“DARKNESS IS RISING! LET FREEDOM FALL!” he repeated to the men. A provider watched them become transparent like the demons they were. Like bees, they flew out of the castle through every wall and window. They took the air with them and replaced it with their toxins. 12

The sun rose in the countryside. It hushed away the dark silently. It seemed only a minute to the providers. It was the entire night in the folds of time. It lit the valley and the lazy hills that crested over and over each other, like a game of leapfrog. It pushed away the dark silently. The sky turned pink and matched the eyes of the people, who gathered to make fun and celebrate a new light, but ended without warning. 13

“Finally…” the last provider closed his weary swollen eyes and drifted.14