Copyright Harris Frost 2014

Chapter One

I

At the end of the war, a man called Herron founded and ran a school for children, mainly boys but also a sizeable number of girls. Built upon a small island off the northern coast of Syralle, the institution grew relatively quickly into a community of over eighty people and the transition from dependency to self-sufficiency was accomplished in less than seven years. Some of the leaders of the territories formed after the war in the proximity of Syralle knew of Herron’s school and wondered, in general terms, as to the rationale behind it bearing in mind Herron’s reputation for the clandestine but the island and the school remained a discreet presence and, as time passed, the suspicious elites gradually disregarded the existence of it and left it to its own devices.

The postwar period was, of course, a time of great plenty and agriculture thrived. The abuse of the land caused by the various factions of the old war parties was not repeated. In the sky each day the sun shone down in warmth and splendour. It fell upon the developing states below and everyone in those lands prospered and found their faith in humanity and beyond, again.

The lessons of the war however, with its huge loss of life and devastation, began to be lost on the people of the states and as the years passed similar rivalries began to resurface albeit quietly at first.

The largest of the new states after the war had not taken measures to dominate the other, smaller states. This state, called Patrochula, lived in peace and harmony with its smaller neighbours and sought to help those less off where it could. As the people of the big state amassed their wealth they tried to help the smaller states too by investing in their states as best they could. This did not mean, however, that they did not take care of themselves at home first, they most certainly did, but everyone, it seemed, did indeed prosper from the new order.

This was a scenario that worked well for many, many years and the continued happiness of everyone was assured even though that happiness was at times taken for granted.

One day that tranquillity was shattered.