Hey there, this is the prologue to Eyes of Time which will be out on the fourth of April, 2024, I hope that if you've been wondering whether or not to read it, that this might help you decide :)
Prologue – Of Happier Days
Year 3011
The furthest house upon the cliff was old, grey, and filled with teenage laughter. The big house held secrets. Many secrets. Stories were told of royalty, of palaces, and most incredibly of the first War Commander. Though everyone knew the family as a paragon of kindness in the city, only they knew the full truth.
Though a school day for some, it was a day off for their year group, the last obligatory school year, and Yato Echinatoha, his little sister, and his friends all relaxed inside his family’s home. After helping his little sister find her missing teddy, he headed back downstairs and as he did, he grinned, eyes turning gold.
“An apple a day keeps the doctor away, ya know?” Yato scolded his friends as he leant over the banister to stare into the kitchen down the hall.
He entered the kitchen where his friends sat at the dining table. They jokingly hid the chocolates that they hadn’t wanted to share behind their backs. Yato rolled his eyes as they turned back to their pale blue. His hair and eyes matched in that pale blue colour that was entirely unique to his family. The rare colour had died out in others’ genetics over time as it was such a pale colour, though his family’s magic was so strong that their hair only varied by shades through most generations.
“Alright, alright.” Quinn, one of his friends from school, got to his feet, reached over, and picked two of the apples in the basket on the table. “You being a doctor at the mighty fine age of what? Fifteen? Doesn’t mean I actually have to listen to you, you know?”
“Oh of course.” He sat. “And yet, you’re still doing it.”
Quinn bit into the apple. Then threw the other at Haruko’s head, who sat opposite him, blinking at the apple that had a dent in it.
“The hell, man?” he groaned and got up to pick the apple from the floor.
He placed it down on the table, not bothering to walk to the bin and Yato leant over from his seat at the head of the table. He placed his hand over the apple and green magic lit up his skin. Then he moved away, the apple was intact. Haruko picked it up and looked upon its green surface curiously. He shrugged and took a bite. There was a mild amount of magic that sat upon its surface, it dissipated quickly, but the small amount he’d tasted was minty.
“So, gentlemen.” Yato smirked. “Any plans for the end of school dance, yet?”
Haruko and Quinn looked at one another, then back at Yato and shook their heads.
“You’re so boring. You know, you could always take me, Haru.” Yato winked.
“Stop flirting.” Quinn yawned and placed down his apple core before Yato. “Here look, begone doctor, begone fiend.”
“I believe that I am not, in fact, an evil spirit of some kind, and so I shall stay right here. I’m quite comfy as a matter of fact.” Yato lit his hand with the same green magic and the apple became whole once more. He picked it up and bit into it. “King, my dear brother, you do look quite green, had I best start doctoring you?”
“You can pi…” Quinn stopped when he saw the little girl on the stairs. “Oh, hello Zuri.”
“Hi Quinn.” She smiled as she stepped from the bottom step to the wooden floor of the hall. “Hi Haruko.”
“Hello pet.” Haruko stood and she ran, he picked the five-year-old girl up with ease and swung her onto his back.
“Hey again baby sis.” Yato stood.
She pouted. “I’m not a baby anymore, Yato.”
“Oh, you’ll always be to me.” He poked her nose and checked the time. “What’ll it be for lunch?”
“Can I have noodles?”
“Of course.” He switched on the kettle and picked up a noodle pot from one of the cupboards.
“When will mummy be home?” she questioned as she slipped out of Haruko’s hold. “And daddy?”
“I’m not sure darling.” He bent to her level. “But we’ll have the most fun together, I promise.”
“Pinkie?” she asked, and he held his out; they squeezed their fingers together.
“Do you mind us hanging around?” Haruko asked.
“Stay!” she cried. “Please stay. Don’t go.”
“Well, who can say no to that face?” he grinned. Then turned to Quinn to mouth an aw.
Zuri absolutely adored Haruko. He spent almost every day with the Echinatoha family. They were his family, for he had no biological relatives, and he loved them all. Though, he preferred to calmly play games with the youngest of the six siblings, for the eldest would frequently find themselves bickering or fighting.
He and Yato would often take charge of looking after the older two of the little ones, who were five and three. Little Emin would amble along with them chattering nonsense as the older Zuri talked to them about what she’d read that day. She was a veritable genius when it came to reading, and Haruko ensured he read from her collection so he could discuss with her. On many occasions, she’d attempted to read books from Yato’s shelves, which mostly belonged to Haruko, though some were from his literature studies. She struggled, but she picked up on the occasional, curious oddity in her vocabulary.
On that day, he and Yato had planned to meet as usual, and eat lunch together and their dear friend Quinn had tagged along. Quinn was less involved in the lives of the Echinatoha, but he still called their parents Aunt and Uncle for they fed him and housed him for the night, all too often, but they never complained. One or two extra well-behaved children bared no difficulty to the wealthy and kindly grown-ups.
“I miss Emin and Sophie.” Zuri sighed and pouted. She gave Yato a pointed look as she crossed her arms.
“I know snowflake,” Yato said. “But she’s got to stay with mummy, and Emin’s at nursery today, we’ll pick them up together with Elian, if you want? Do you remember nursery?”
“Please. And I remember that I didn’t like it.” Her little white nose scrunched up. “Too much snot.”
“Oh, deary me, how awful.” Yato leant to kiss her head. “Come, sit at the table, your noodles will be done in a minute. Would you like a brownie for dessert?”
“Who made them?” she narrowed her eyes with suspicion.
“Keon Ueda, remember her? Short and black curly hair.” Yato smiled as Zuri nodded. “She dropped off a bunch yesterday when she came over with Lia.”
Zuri smiled happily, picked up her chopsticks and ran to sit at the table. She kicked her feet as she waited. “I love her baking.”
Haruko smiled at her, then turned to his friends. “I’ll be honest, guys, I’m not sure that Miss Solembridge will let me go to the dance. She already destroyed Arrow’s dress. That might just be because she hates Arrow, but…”
“By Melantha what a…” Yato finished the swear under his breath before he remembered about his sister sharing his hearing ability, she giggled, and he placed a finger over his lips. She nodded. “Well, I can always have mum and dad yell at her. If you want?”
“Don’t get Auntie and Uncle involved. The Laghmanis are already furious about Arrow’s situation. Don’t need too many people mad at her.”
Yato nodded. “It sucks for them. I still don’t understand why you can’t just live with us, and Arrow with their literal siblings.”
“Once you get put in the orphanage, you’re trapped.” He shrugged and they knew to end the conversation there.
Quinn sighed and patted Haruko’s shoulder, then leant back in his chair. “So, Keon and Lia?”
“No.” Yato shook his head and put down the pot in front of Zuri and cooled it with ice magic. “Lia’s helping her find a girlfriend though, I swear, Lia knows every sapphic teenager in this Alastair-damned city.”
“Damn, I was hoping to have something to tease her with.” Quinn sighed. “She’s too perfect, there has to be something.”
“Well, I’m certainly not going to tell you.” Yato grinned. “Echinatoha sibling code I’m afraid. We fight or hate one another, but we never betray one another.”
⁂
“We’re home!” called their mother, Cara. Those of the children who had their family’s near supernatural hearing could hear her hang up the keys at the side of the door.
“Mama!” Zuri and her little brother leapt up and, Yato walked first down the stairs, and they followed behind to head into the kitchen.
They’d picked up the little white-haired Emin from nursery after collecting the youngest of the older three from the high school. The second she’d set eyes on Yato, who was grinning madly, Elian had stormed over and knocked him onto the ground with a well-placed punch. Zuri giggled and Elian swung her into her arms and kissed her cheek. She’d begun the walk to the nursery before Yato had even gotten back to his feet.
After the punch, Elian was satisfied in letting Yato walk at her side on their way. Once at the nursery, they waited at the door, chit chatting until the lady who dealt with collections came to the door with Emin. Yato picked him up in his arms and they’d walked back together after collecting Sophie from the playgroup at the hospital where their mother worked. Zuri walked happily hand-in-hand with Emin as Elian pushed the pram and Yato lagged behind to keep a close eye on them all.
They were safe in the city. Or they were supposed to be. He’d fought too many monsters within the walls to feel safe with his little siblings. He and Elian were both good fighters, but three little ones to protect would be difficult, even on the days where they walked with the more powerful Lia. And so, they remained prepared and observant. Their Eyes of Time would sometimes show them the future, but nothing was set in stone, and nothing was guaranteed, so even that wouldn’t always help.
“Hey sweethearts.” Cara knelt and kissed their foreheads.
“Did you have a good day at nursery?” their father, Cartier asked little Emin.
He nodded with a big grin on his face. “I painted today.”
“Is that why there’s green in your hair?” Cara laughed and looked to her husband.
“Oh deary me.” Cartier sighed. “You’re in need of a bath.”
Emin pouted and kicked the floor. “I don’t like baths.”
Zuri giggled.
“Well, I was thinking of making everyone pizza.” Cartier shrugged. “I suppose you don’t want any.”
“I want pizza!” he cried and grabbed their mother’s hand to lead her upstairs.
“That worked better than I expected.” He watched them leave then picked up Zuri. “Have fun with the boys today?”
She hummed. “Haru bought me a chocolate crois… crois…”
Cartier smiled and asked, “Croissant?”
“That.” She nodded. “It was delightful.”
“It was fun,” Yato said. “Then we went to pick up Elian from school.”
Cartier attempted but failed to stifle his laugh. “I bet that went well.”
“Oh yeah she punched me for embarrassing her.” He grinned. “Lia’s still out, so I’ve been waiting for the chance to get her back for way too long.”
“How’s Soph?”
“Sleeping. We couldn’t keep her awake, could we Z?”
“She’s cute when she’s sleeping.” Her bright expression quickly turned dull. “She’s not when she’s crying.”
Yato stretched his back then cracked his neck. “Now you’re home, dad, I can go get her back.”
“Don’t kill one another until after dinner!” Cartier called after him.
“No promises!”
He shook his head, smile not leaving his face. “Looks like it’s just us on pizza duty today, go wash your hands.”
And he used his magic to float over the stool for her to reach the sink with ease as he pulled the cloth off a bowl of proofed dough from the fridge. He made the pizzas into heart shapes, one each for the eldest, a half for Zuri and Emin to share between them, and then a mini square one for little baby Sophie who had a decided hatred towards circles and other rounded shapes.
⁂
14th September, 3012
“Happy birthday, Zuri!” everyone called as she blew out her candles.
Six.
She felt so big.
She felt like nothing could ever go wrong.
They ate cake in the living room as she opened the presents her little friends had delivered to her house. They couldn’t stay, but they came in the morning with their parents to drop off the gifts, kiss her cheeks, and run off with a promise to have a picnic party another day.
One was a long yellow ribbon. Simple as it seemed, it had magic embedded within the strands of expensive silk. She pulled out her somewhat tattered hair ribbon and made the eldest of the siblings, Lia, tie her new one in with a little bow.
The other was a little story book, simple, filled with black and white drawings. But it was ever so sweet. It told the tale of two little kids in winter, making a snowman and playing with snow and it ended with them being older, holding hands as one summoned a snowflake and put it on a silver chain for the other to wear around his neck. She couldn’t stop her smile. Many within her family had ice magic, and it was something she was obsessed with for a very long time. She hoped that one day, she’d be able to use it too.
Maybe, she’d gift him, that little brown-haired boy, a snowflake necklace just like the one in the book one day, when they were older. He gave her butterflies sometimes, when he was super nice. She’d told her not-quite brother, brother about them, Haruko told her it was a nice thing, that she loved her friend so much that her magical butterflies were stirred to life whenever she thought of him. She thought he was reading too far into it; she loved her other three friends just as much after all. She was sad when he discouraged her from beginning to go through the blood bond rituals that would make them legal siblings, she’d already almost made two completed ones, and it confused her, after all one person could have four bonds. But he was smarter than she, so she listened, and it was fine, she was contented with just playing with the sweet boy. Though, they mostly sat and read together to the dismay of their shared friend who was still struggling with reading.
Her sullen sister, Elian, remained quiet in the corner of the living room, Zuri had enjoyed her gift already, a set of handmade chocolates. She was a quiet teen, but she was quieter than usual. Only Zuri noticed and so, once she’d opened her final gifts, she went over to Elian and sat on her lap. Elian hugged her so tight she could hardly breath, and when she released her hold, she said, “I love you kiddo, you know that?”
Little Sophie, only two, walked over to the pair and opened her arms wide. “Big cuddles!”
Zuri and Elian welcomed her into the hug, and Emin soon joined too. The others in the room didn’t. Elian wasn’t keen on interacting with others, a partial façade of coolness, and partly because she enjoyed solitude and its quiet company. But they never failed to notice how the three youngest would melt her icy heart.
“I’m sorry none of the boys could be here,” Cara said.
“It’s okay.” Zuri shrugged. “I’ll get Jason and Sora to give me my presents when we next see each other anyway.”
“What if they didn’t buy you any?” Yato grinned.
Zuri shook her head. “They wouldn’t forget. Besides, I’d be con… content? With a rock or a leaf, as long as they gave me a big hug with it.”
Before she went to bed, she took out her ribbon and lay it on her bedside table. She read the book again and would go on to read it every night after. On the eighteenth she made a promise to read it every single night and after place it in her little hidey spot underneath her bookshelf before bed.
Little did she know then that the next time she would read it, would be in over thirteen years...
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