"What follows is a philological reconstruction of a Faendryl 'faerie tale' from several thousand years ago. The legend has surfaced in various forms and titles over the centuries. It is customary to instruct the young with horror stories. But while this tale was intended for older adolescents, its political content was long a source of controversy. It has the dubious honor of an especially sordid history of book burnings or being banned and placed on blacklists. Its author was rumored to have been condemned to the asylums. This was more a punitive than a palliative measure, a question of the subject of well-being."
- Lord Xorus Kul'shin, Vice Chancellor Emeritus
Hazalred Thaumaturgical Institute
22nd Fashanos, 5119 Modern Era
"The Dark Mirror"
In the wasteland of the fallen empire was the desert jewel of our royal daughter, whose father bore within his bloodied heart the shards of a world of broken dreams. It was the irony of our age of progress, its visionary purging his haunted memories with this mausoleum of vaulted monuments, blinding the past in a whitewash of alabaster and the glimmer of new horizons. There was nothing of the lost who had brought to light the world without them. It was as much a necropolis of honeyed catacombs for the still living as a city of hopes in the desolation of yesteryear.
In those early ages the young knew nothing of the old ways --- the skyless nights and starless darkness --- nor the dread of wandering too far into the deepest caves. These were the children who knew naught of horror and war, nor the travails of hunger nor hardship, so unburdened were they of trauma and betrayal. They could understand nothing of their elders, only the hatred and resentment toward themselves.
There in the shadow of the Basilica with its oppressive glare under the noon-day sun --- past the alleys and vars, the valley of merchants, nestled in a cul-de-sac of ivory and lor --- was the modest estate of a most harsh and hateful tyrant. No one had ever known such cruelty as this child, so severe was his widowed father.
More here: https://gswiki.play.net/The_Dark_Mirror_(story)
