Chapter 1 – The Ascension
Azaleum
Cold shivers crawl down my skin like a thousand knife-legged spiders. The pain at the top of my skull is excruciating; as if someone is driving a spike into my brain with a sledgehammer. The vibrations echo through my head and down into my toes. I bite my lip and taste blood. I breathe through the pain, and continue watching what I’m sure is the last sunrise I’ll ever see. For generations, the Sun has granted its power to my family and country, enforcing our divine mandate to rule the world in God’s absence. Ironically, on the day I am about to become the Vessel of the Sun and inherit its power, my focus is somewhere else entirely. Slow and inevitable, like blood draining out of an open wound, my eyes draw over the horizon toward the prison of God. The Vortex rapes the landscape with black wind and colorless fire. With every brutal explosion of lightning, I feel more sure that father’s plan is absolute madness. My heart freezes, then shatters into tiny pieces.
I am going to die today… Morbid curiosity pulls my eyes into the storm’s depths. The prison of God is almost hypnotizing in its all-consuming wrath. Waves of ink-black energy and gray fire rush past my eyes until they become the very substance of my mind. My thoughts burn, accelerating as if caught in an unyielding riptide. An unstoppable grip pulls me deeper into the darkness. Then, it all stops.
‘Today you will die and be reborn in fire.’
His voice is cold and eternal, like a cloudless winter sky at midnight. It echoes in the emptiness of my splintered mind.
‘You are the cleansing flame that must burn away the corruption in this world. Become the voice, shield and sword of oneness, Azaleum…’
Searching for the source of the voice, my eyes land upon a figure standing alone in the darkness. He stands still, wearing a half-smile on his elegant face. His eyes are of the deepest icy silver.
‘Trust me, this is only the beginning…’