Prologue
Queen Celene Herakles, Location Unknown
I wasn't fooled. Not by the feast laid out on the long table before me, nor the false smile on the face of the man stuffing his mouth with food as if he hadn't a care in the world. I knew the truth, and the warm clothing and slippers he'd provided a few hours before I'd been escorted to this dining room did not make me want to talk. Not to him. Not to anyone on this doomed space cruiser. They’d given me a ReGen wand and access to a bathing tube. I felt well… for now.
This was a test of patience, a test of wills. Who would endure? A test of faith. Trust. Patience, for it had been twenty-seven years since I’d been home, to Alera. I’d escaped their machinations all those years ago, but they’d finally found me.
I had no regrets. Back on Ear
