0~The Letter
Dear Odette,
In the winter of 1376, on the snowy banks of a small village in Airlie, a family of five had been found dead and house charred to a crisp in the dead of night. No witnesses to this unfortunate event came forward, leaving authorities to assume a blunder had taken place by the family's own hand. Per contra, several meters from the scorched home, a young girl was found unconscious by the Cypriani Imperial family of Bhaltair as they traveled to their winter palace for the season. This young girl was brought into the household as one of their own, her previous connection to the dead family and her true identity unbeknownst to them.
To elaborate on the significance of this young girl's identity and the impact it would inflict on the Imperial Family and all they touch in and out of Bhaltair, I must start at the very beginning. The current ruling family, the Cypriani, had usurped the throne of Bhaltair from their distant cousins, the Nasrin, after the death of Emperor Malachi and his wife, Empress Novaliea. They had no children before their passing.
Or so it had been believed.
Strife between the families had been long lived. Under Emperor Malachi’s rule, they’d been held at bay but Empress Novaliea knew they’d come in full force if she couldn’t bear an heir and if she did, she feared that child's life would be depicted as a threat more than a security for the empire.
Within the spring of 1366, the Cypriani family and supporters of their rule tore through the palace gates the same evening the Empress gave birth to a baby girl she placed in the care of a loyal maiden and friend named Ismene. That child, growing up on the banks of a small, humble village with two sisters and brother, under the care of Ismene and her husband, Hideo, I wish to believe, quite happily. That is until a fire took place, killing everyone but that young girl, miraculously.
I write to you today, years later after that unfortunate event, under the guise of a servant to the princess in hopes that you will seek your true calling and, with our help, return to the throne that is rightfully yours by birth. Will you join us in restoring your good name to the throne and all it serves? If you choose to take up this calling, there will be an olive carriage near the crossing behind the palace stables ready for you in three days of this letter's arrival. If you wish to continue your life of ignorance and servitude, the carriage will leave at midnight and its vacancy will be our answer.
Sincerely,
Your loyal supporter.
