Chapter 15
Later that afternoon, Esme took the compendium into the Lovells’ courtyard and settled down at the mosaic table. The first tale in the heavy hardback book corresponded with the image on its cover: the creation of Aeolia.
Aeolia’s story begins in the Other World, almost two thousand years ago, during a long period of war and strife. The armies of Rome were sweeping across the city-states of Ancient Greece, subsuming a great and powerful civilisation that had thrived for centuries. As the Greek city of Corinth fell to Roman rule, a pair of lovers fled their home: Michail and Sofia Agapios.
The exiles came to rest on the sands of a deserted beach, where their troubles were soothed by the sounds of the lapping sea and the song of the breeze as it played across the strings of a wi
