ANEW ||

Prologue

"Please?" he asked again, seeing his mothers wavering resolve. She would cave eventually if he could just keep that look on his face.

"Oh, fine," she huffed, her warm chocolate face softening at the cheeks. "Just this once."

He didn't waste a second before crawling under the covers and grinning up at her. He loved her stories, especially the ones about the magic. Her fingers came up to his sides as she sat beside him on the bed, tucking the covers in tightly around his small body. "What story?"

He knew every single one of them, could recite them all word for word. He had his favorites sure, but there was only one he wanted to hear. The only problem was, his mother refused to tell it to him. Every single time.

"The one about the Queen..." he suggested carefully, knowing what her answer would be but hoping this time it would be different.

She stared at him for a long, long moment. That look was on her face, that one that made her lips go into a thin line.

"Alright," she signed. "I suppose you're old enough now."

Damn right he was old enough! He was almost thirteen!

He grinned at his mother anyway.

"So," she began, "A long, long time ago there were three brothers born to the God of Might. The boys knew their father, but what they didn't realize was that each one had a different mother.

"You see, Mardoon, the God of Might, chose his first wife because of how beautiful she was. She was the Goddess of Fortune and Beauty. Long silky black hair and eyes made of silver. He had never seen another so beautiful. She was cunning, and Mardoon loved her for it. So, they had a son, and together they named him The Taken, for her had taken their hearts. He was also called the God of Storms with his thundercloud eyes - the fate of the future. His mother gave him his final name as she held him, 'Alaric, beauty and grace and cunning.' But she died shortly after birth."

He looked at his mother; this was a sad story then.

"And then Mardoon met his second wife. A Goddess of Night, brave and strong. She was not as beautiful as the first wife but he loved her even more for her dark heart and wicked mind. But she died just as the first had. With her newborn child in her arms. Mardoon named him The Given for he gave pain even as a child, God of Darkness and Solitude, fate of the past. Elijah.

"Mardoon was so heartbroken from the loss of his second wife that when his third child was conceived on accident, he couldn't stand to face the woman. It wasn't until he received word that that boy and his mother had lived that he finally went to see her. He married her right then, the Goddess of Resilience. She had already given the child a name, so Mardoon gave him his title: Hades, The Merge, God of Death for only a death god could choose who lived and died, the fate of the present.

"Mardoon and his new bride lived in peace with the three children that they came to raise together. The older boys never knew that their mother was not really their mother. They kept that part hidden, but the boys came to love the Goddess of Resilience, never knowing that she was not indeed the mother of all three.

"The three boys grew into juveniles. They terrorized the island they lived on with their parents along with the people there. They had been adored for their beautiful faces and unique personalities.

"And then the worst happened. The three children were playing on a sandy beach with their mother watching over them when a fight broke out between the brothers.

"The city that covered the center of the island fell. It sunk right through the earth and into the water below. The island was in chaos. Some islanders fell with the city into the water, adapting to live amongst the sea life with glittering scales of every shade of green. Others grew wings to avoid the fall, flying up to the highest peaks and the tallest trees with their beautifully pale faces.