A FOREWORD BY ORION ATLAS

I used to dream of my own death.

On silent nights, when I could hear nothing but the sounds of my own restlessness as I tossed and turned beneath my tousled silk sheets, I tried to tell the story of my own demise. Scenario after scenario played in my head like episodes of a grisly reality TV show as I tried to foretell the intricacies of my final moments.

Often, I found myself wondering where I would die. Even at a young age, I'd known without a shadow of doubt that it would be on a battlefield, blood trickling over my crimson-stained teeth as I spat in my opponent's face. How else would a crown prince like myself go out?

There were other times where I did my best to surmise exactly how I would die, which inevitably led to a guessing game that would decide whose hand would have the pleasure of striking me down. I'd always thought it would be a general from another planet. A king or a prince, maybe, for no other purpose than that of glory and conquest. It would be a glorious death, at least, to go down fighting with the rage of every Sarosian warrior that had lived before me.

Or, if the glistening souls of the stars in the sky felt cruel enough, it could be by the hand of a trusted adviser, for there is no person you can truly call a friend in a place like Saros. Any man would consider squeezing the cold fingers of death tightly around their king's throat if it meant they could gain something out of it.

Never once in any of my insomnia-driven fantasies did I think it would be the plump red lips of a woman that would bear my ruin. I never could have imagined that the vibrant red paint in the painting of my death would belong to a strand of red hair, not a drop of my blood. And yet, as I took one last quivering breath on the wargrounds of my own heart, tangled coils of ruby curls were the last thing I laid my eyes on. I've always found it humorous that the very same eyes that killed me were the ones that returned the oxygen to my chafed lungs.

The story you're about to read - my very own ballad of tragedy and triumph - is the story of how I died and came to life again.

Well...sort of.

( gif spam - found at top of page - by remuslupout )