Magnus Fonda

"The Usurper's Garden" Prologue

There weren’t always dragons in the Valley. Only Nan could remember a time before they came, when the wyrdwoods still grew and the Timetsu drank in their power; our power. We had been tenders, or so I was always told as a young girl, our bond with the wyrdwoods our singular source of purpose in this world. When I would look at Nan, so hale for her centuries of life, and see those cerulean markings tracing forked patterns like pulsating roots across her form, and casting a light of ardor upon her bright eyes, I would feel both a sense of awe as well as one of forlorn longing for a time that I never knew.