My NaNo Novel

For NaNoWriMo, I am working on an epic fantasy. I am waaaay behind due to a stomach bug, but I am determined to get back on track...which will involve tons of catch-up writing. Just for the fun of it, I thought I would share the prologue of my story, tentatively entitled Blackbirds. I hope you enjoy. :)

Prologue:

It is commonly believed that cats are the most magical creatures in the word. How else is it that they vanish and reappear seemingly at will? It is because of this, say the subjects of Melidor, that gives mages their most recognizable features; their cat’s eyes.

Scholars and educated men, of course, dismiss this as idle superstition and cite all kinds of scientific and arcane theories and explanations that are utterly incomprehensible to most of the populace but that eventually translates to, “We have absolutely no idea how it really works but we know you are wrong anyway.”

I like the commoner’s theory better.

However mages picked up their feline attributes may have caused many academic disagreements, but the soldiers of Melidor didn’t care so long as the distinguishing feature ensured easy identification. You see, the soldiers had their orders, and those orders were to kill anyone born with magical abilities; anyone with cat’s eyes. It did not matter if this person was a commoner or a noble, man or woman, adult or child.

Magic originated in the wilds of the north, among the mountains of Massar. (A country blessed with an abundance of cats, just in case you were wondering.) Over the last eight decades, travelers came to Melidor from Massar and decided to stay. Some of them had cat’s eyes. At first, many feared the strange gifts of the Massari, but slowly they became accustomed to neighbors who spoke to their pets and coaxed flowers into blooming early. That was a more peaceful time. The Massari were simple people and they settled in with the merchants and workers and in time, many of them married. The children from these unions were often born with very distinctive feline eyes.

When King Michel died after a long and prosperous reign, his young son, Iain, rose to the throne. Iain despised the mages and taught his son the same hate…and fear. Because the Massari all married into the lower classes, no child of noble birth was born with magic. This caused Iain and his son to fear them because they had a power that the king did not. Mages were persecuted by Iain, but that was nothing to what his son did.

When Iain died peacefully at the age of eighty-nine, Iain II was crowned. One of his first acts as King of Melidor was to make out a writ of execution for the Massari and their descendants. There were riots in the streets but these small, disorganized revolts were quelled swiftly by the king’s men. The Massari were not accustomed to using their powers for war, despite Iain’s fear of them.

It was strange, then, that the two people who caused him the most trouble were entirely without magic. Their eyes were perfectly ordinary. They were called the Crow and the Raven, and their story became legend.

                                        Lieder Madchen