1821

The moon danced on the lake’s water, playing hide-and-seek with the clouds, who crawled lazily across the starry night. A woman singing a sorrowful song could be heard on an island located in the middle of the lake. It was the voice of someone who had lost everything and did not want anything from a world that had betrayed her when she needed it the most. The melody rose and twisted amidst the trees, weaving a cry that could take hold of any heart. Standing by the water, there was a beautiful woman weathered by the years, her black her cascading on her back.

Despite her bleak state, she could not help but make an attempt at a smile at how low she had fallen. She had once been the proud wife of Surinadi, son of Angi the Sunbane. Her husband was one of Unati Uroni and Unati Angi’s best warriors, and their fierce supporter, while she enjoyed the riches of the royals and had the respect of the masses. She gave birth to a child, named Uroni after his kingly uncle, a fair and strong son who was meant to become a great man. And all that was snatched away from her in an instant.

When the Blind Death came, Surinadi was one of the first to fall. She could only watch as her husband, once full of life, begged for his death to put an end to his madness. But she could not kill the man he loved, not even for mercy, and the gods decided to punish her weakness.

A year later came Angi’s turn and, with his own death, the Sunbane’s legacy was set ablaze. The people of Agaebu claimed that the whole line was cursed, and stormed the palace to put an end to it, spurned by those who had survived the illness and said the spirits had talked to them through it. Those with the blood of Angi who still remained in the city and could not flee, were murdered in the most gruesome way, and among them was her son, her beautiful son, who was stabbed a thousand and twenty times as she watched in horror. Then she was defiled and put through the most horrible of experiences by the crowd, who accused her of being a sorceress and a whore for the Anginites, but she was too weak to put a fight, her life having ended when her child, who had barely seen ten summers, was killed in front of her.

They left her for dead, thinking she would never recover, but she managed to crawl out of town, where she was taken in by Angi Dela’s band and promised revenge. That too, was a failure, for Dela’s brother, Agappi, had been killed by Unati Angi, and the truth was that he wanted to sell her to her enemies. So she fled, again, and for years tried to garner the support of any chief still standing. But the plague raged all over the Mieca, and brother fought brother in a fratricidal conflict, attempting to lay claim to what little was left of the Quarreler’s legacy. In the end, she realised there was no hope, and retired to that small island in the middle of Lake Nigasu, to put an end to her suffering.

There she was, Eiani, once the most beautiful woman in Mieca, ready to return to the Nea.