Catching Her Balance: Act 1 - Things Fall Apart

By Brenda Thatcher

ACT ONE:
Derrick Vittalar believes he is The Promised One. His ascension will herald decades of prosperity and peace, or so it's said. Faithful to a fault, Derrick’s father hedges his bets by allowing Derrick to train at the Skylar Temple alongside his cousin’s child Jago.

Together, they grew in age, knowledge, and skill oblivious to two important things
1.Not everyone in the Septum is happy about The Prophecy.
2.Not everyone in the Septum is content with the promised change..
Derrick and Jago discover this truth in the most uncomfortable of ways: a murderous revolt.

Survival. Passion. Emergence.
•But first, as always - Things Fall Apart.
COMPLETELY REVISED IN STRUCTURE AND PLOT

• Language: English
• Publisher: The Mage
• Release date: Sep 3, 2022
• ISBN: 9781005061135

Book preview

Skylar: Catching her Balance

Act 1 – Things Fall Apart

TABLE OF CONTENTS:

Prologue: The White Island

Chapter One: Ceremony

Chapter Two: Boots on the Ground

Chapter Three: Light up the Night

ACKNOWLEDGMENT

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Prologue: The White Island

Against a sky lightened by dawn’s warm colors rises an ancient stone citadel. Its towers clawed at the departing darkness like arthritic fingers worrying a cloth. Sea birds swarm and shriek nearby, bearing witness to the restless waves’ endless struggle between the building’s foundation and an incoming, inevitable change.

Within, someone at the edge of adulthood races up a long staircase. Leather boots slap across the worn stone while the robe’s fabric snaps. Gazes of the bored sentries standing at wooden doors follow the figure’s rushed journey upward. At the top, the runner pauses to catch his breath and scan the surroundings.

Lush, thick tapestries drape the walls; art objects shimmer atop their pedestals, tickled by torchlight; armed sentries frame an open portal cut into the north wall, which allows a view beyond the citadel’s walls. Another figure, one wearing the armor of a Skylar war master, paces the rocks outside.

Derrick hurries toward Jago.

The guards snap their pikes together and block his path.

He pushes at the blocking weapons. What are you doing?

Pardon, a’Lar, but you are forbidden, says the guard on the left.

Forbidden? The White Island has been breached. My family’s territory is under attack. He again shoves at the weapons. Step aside!

The a’Lar must not be risked. Left Guard says, refusing to yield.

Derrick struggles against the barrier of weapons, which results in one flailing hand making contact with a translucent barrier. A flash of blinding magic lights the area but the barrier does not fall. He realizes, uncomfortably, that magical protections have been put in place to prevent his passage.

Frustrated, he resigns himself to watching his lifelong friend do what he cannot.

And Jago isn’t happy.

The constant wind whips across the outside area, cleaning the rock and tugging at the red rope around his waist. He faces a trio of magi standing near the portal, their hands shoved inside the bell-like sleeves of their green and brown robes.

His angry voice cracks across the early morning stillness. Whadda you mean ‘no’? The island is Vittalar land.

The Prophecy rises, says one cadaver-thin mage.

Jago gives a rude, dismissive gesture. Then Derrick should be hip-deep in this shit, no?

Skylar defends Vittalar. Always. This is the shorter of the two.

Beyond, the bridled head of a Skylar war hawk rises into view as it searches for her usual rider. A hard, impatient