Prologue
Fury vast enough to blot out the heavens tore free. Will hardened into power, power into phenomenon, and the phenomenon took shape at last as calamity: a blazing sun.
The authority of heaven had descended upon the earth, and its mere presence scorched everything around it. Golden gates sworn to endure for eternity, the castle walls steeped in the long history of the royal capital, the blue sky itself and even the clouds that had drifted so serenely in the heights—all of them bowed their heads before that absolute flame.
High overhead, such power would have been light to illuminate the world. Dragged down onto the earth, it became a disaster beyond all comparison. Before the sun that had risen upon the ground, the true sun in the sky above lost its radiance and fell away into black.
One elf stood before it.
All she possessed was strength enough to tear mountains from their roots, and a body as unyielding as adamant. Set beside the sun, it was a pitiful thing. It was also enough.
With nothing but her two bare fists, she faced the sun.
It was romance, pure and absolute.