Chapter Text
Prologue
It is late as I write this. The thunder is faint but the lightening lights up the room as the rain batters the window. Perhaps this tale could only be written in the dark of night, perhaps it is why tonight is the night I chose to start writing it. It is one that my own children have begged for me to tell. And now my grandchildren ask if the tales are true. If what they say in the history books are right. Or the whispers that are spoken outside the schoolhouse?
To them it is a story that they have heard told over the fire or out of a book of heroes. But for those of us who lived it, it is an entirely different thing. They are nightmares that still wake us from a deep sleep, wounds long healed but still ache, memories that haunt us as if they happened yesterday. For those of us who lived it, who survived it, we remember what we lost and what we almost lost. For those of us survived, we are left with the scars.
They think this tale is just mine. But in truth it is three tales that are as intertwined as the ivy that crawls up a tower. Three strangers whose lives were forever altered, whose choices carried across land and sea. Three strangers united in such a way that nothing can undo it. It is only fair to tell all three tales.
The first is the one who lost everything. The one who in War showed what it cost to have Victory.
The second is the one who tried to hold on. Who tried to keep Peace, while being Vigilant of the injustices that were happening around her.
And the third is the one Who fought to live. The one who showed that there were Sacrifices worse than Death.
In war, victory. In Peace, Vigilance. In death, sacrifice. And this is my tale.