1 The Royal Family of Aether and the Villain of Our Tale

Menes, the Commoner who had become the Divine Deucalion of Aether, had no children and no living relatives. To prevent a succession crisis, he named Conall, his highly competent prime minister who had a son and grandchildren, his successor. Thus, when Menes passed on to the next life, a noble military family of great status descended from redheaded and ruddy-skinned immigrants, became the royal family of a small volcanic island kingdom.

Conall, five and fifty twelvemonths old at the time of his ascension, had been Menes' lieutenant during their days as soldiers, during which Menes had been general. When Menes ascended to the throne upon the passing of his predecessor, all the officers under Menes' command had been appointed the leadership of a priesthood with Conall becoming the High Priest of the Donkey God, patron deity of foreigners. He had married a woman named Elizabeth and fathered a son: Tigris. Tigris had married a woman named Oda and fathered a daughter named Eithne and a son named Falco, the hero of our tale. Conall ruled for two twelvemonths, dying at the age of seven and fifty, after which Tigris ascended the throne at the age of nine and thirty and had ruled for the past eleven twelvemonths. For one and forty twelvemonths had Aether known peace. Menes had ruled well, as had Conall and Tigris was continuing as they had, yet even then there was someone attempting to undermine the House of Conall.

Taurus Minor, High Priest of the Earth Bull, had long abominated the House of Conall and that hatred stemmed from the fact that they were descended from immigrants and had risen higher than a family descended from the native populace. His own hatred for immigrants and indeed anyone of foreign background stemmed from the treatment Taurus had received from his own father and predecessor. Taurus had been born so hideous that his father, an incredibly vain man who believed that Aethereans of the native populace were the most beautiful and moral in all the world, refused to recognize Taurus as his son and treated him poorly, as well as publicly accusing his wife of infidelity with a foreigner. The previous High Priest of the Earth Bull, Aether's patron deity, had long since passed on with the official story being leprosy caused by him having beheaded the statue of the Sun God in a fit of rage. According to the whispers among the populace however, Taurus had slain his own father in secret and now that he had risen to the position of High Priest of the Earth Bull, it was said Taurus had his sights set on an even higher position: he desired to become the Divine Deucalion of Aether. He desired to become a god-king and what a god-king he would have been. There was none whom abominated more venomously that Taurus, for he abominated the earth and his lord and master, the Divine Deucalion. He would have been mean and fell, playing his subjects for amusement, afflicting them with dolor and besieging them with terrors.

For thirteen twelvemonths, Taurus had waited for his opportunity to usurp the throne and now, it seemed as if his patience had paid off. Tigris was ailing, problems with his thorax and abdomen that were either carcinoma or something to do with his heart, and Falco was absent from Aether on a diplomatic mission to a different island nation. A successful usurpation was assured. All Taurus had to do was wait for Tigris to expire then he could seize power. He already had the backing of Eithne, a woman whose facade was one of untrustworthiness and looseness, and her idiot bridegroom Columba, both wanting to save their own lives with the former wanting Taurus to make her his queen. Taurus already had a queen in mind however: Alfred's youngest girl Rowena. He may have slain her bridegroom and her paterfamilias but, to Taurus' thinking, the readiest approach to make the wench amends was to become her bridegroom and her paterfamilias. He could always poison Eithne after the marriage.