Darkness.

That was the first thing the young boy noticed as he was pulled into the large hall, the thick iron doors slamming shut behind him with a distinct clank. Whispers filled his ears, his head frantically turning back and forth as he tried to find the source of the quiet murmurs that called him by a name he'd long since left behind.

A flash of movement pulled him out of his search for the voices that set him on edge, his teeth bared as he spotted the cloaked figures standing around one of the few sources of light in the room. Tall grey columns were illuminated by the glowing blue crystal, its light barely reaching the engraved markings surrounding the matching crystal embedded in the ceiling. If it hadn't been for that second crystal shinning blue light onto the circular pattern of swirls and old runes, then he'd never have known where he was. He'd been dragged up from the slums, blindfolded and half-conscious thanks to the nasty blow one of the so-called Templar Knights had given him. But he wasn't in the slums anymore, though. The sigil told him he'd been dragged into the very heart of the Royal City, but for what purpose he didn't know. He was a street rat. Someone far beneath these people. He should've just been a speck of dust on their radar, if that at all. He shouldn't have been able to gain the attention of one of the members of the Order of Virtues, and yet there he was in front of all of them. It was a chance most nobles, or anyone inside the city, would've killed for. But not him. He was just a boy who had no reason to be in that room... unless they'd found him out for what he truly was.

"Boy..." Blue eyes locked on his own, practically glowing in the dim light. "Do you know why you've been brought here?"

Pink eyes stared right back, carefully hiding any trace of fear in their rosy depths, just like he'd been taught all those years ago. "No."

"Can't you hear them?" The man tilted his head, his black hood shifting ever so slightly, revealing more of his youthful features. "The ones calling your name?"

"What of it?" He asked, his eyes narrowed. "What do they have to do with anything?"

"You've been hearing voices a lot over the last few days, haven't you?" He smirked, his booted feet carrying him gracefully over to where the boy knelt with his hands safely fastened behind his back. Not that it made much difference. Even without his hands tied behind his back, he wouldn't have been any match for the nine people standing in front of him. They were trained knights, easily capable of killing one small untrained boy such as him in the blink of an eye.

The boy's silence answered the man's question.

"Don't you want to know the reason why?" He continued, not even slightly phased at the boy's nonchalant expression. "The reason why you can hear the Stars' Call?"

Thin ruby lips contorted into a frown, confusion crossing the boy's sickly pale face, too tired to keep up his indifferent mask of emotions he usually wore carefully at all times. The slums had slowly taken a toll on his body, and it was plain as day to see. Children didn't tend to last too long in the harsh conditions they were faced with outside the large grey walls encompassing the great city. "What do the Stars have to do with anything?"

"Everything." The man crouched down, crystalline eyes glowing even brighter as one alabaster finger met the boy's slightly darker forehead. "It's time for you to wake up, my dear little Virtue."

One tawny brown hand clamped around his arm, another hooded figure hauling him off the knees he'd been forced onto only a few minutes before. "Come on." The thick masculine voice sounded, the owner of the accented speech pulling him towards the raised circular dais in the centre of the gigantic room. "It's time you answered the Call." He said. "You've kept the Stars waiting far too long."

Once again, the small boy was forced to his knees only that second time he was atop the glowing blue crystal embedded in the centre of the circular platform. Tall pillars boxed him in, fear gleaming in his nervous gaze as the jewelled slab beneath him hummed to life. Light shone down from above, the sigil directly above him bursting to life, the black markings starting to shine with a pink light which soon overtook all the blue colouring in the room. Even the crystalline surface beneath him turned the same rosy pink colour, streams of light bursting up from beneath him, the sound of fire crackling in his ears, overpowering the faint whisperings. Apprehension built in his chest, his eyes wide, frantically searching the nine sets surrounding him as he knelt there, panic building as power surged through him like a waterfall, until an odd sense of calm descended. An abrupt silence overcame him, his mouth falling open in shock as he stared past the air crackling with power and up into the night sky which was suddenly visible to him.

Numerous stars twinkled down at him, glowing brighter than the boy had ever seen before, but there was one star up in the sky that he'd never seen before. A pink one. The very one which shone the strongest. The one that's colour matched the strange vines of light surrounding him.

The one whose name he knew.

Whose name he'd carried in his heart ever since he was born.

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ILLENIS HERE

Well, that's the prologue done and dusted. Got any critisisms? Then send them my way. (Of the constructive sort, please.)

This is going to have slow updates for a while (I mentioned this in the blurb) just to give you all a heads up on the matter.

Until next time :)

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