Perhaps it had all begun with Grand Duke Asayne’s younger sister, who had only just married into Cyprus at the time.
—Have you ever heard of the “Prepared One”?
—The Prepared One? What is that, my lady?
At Chryses’s question, his young wife answered, her beautiful eyes sparkling like stars.
—They say he is the true ruler whom the Lord God has prepared for a new age. He will arrive like a comet cleaving through the darkness, unite the divided Orders into one, and lead us toward a new truth. All things in the world will kneel beneath his feet, and under his rule, we will find true harmony and peace.
—…….
At first, Chryses had thought it sounded like complete nonsense.
But not long afterward, his wife introduced him to a man named Galeno, and Chryses’s prejudice—that the man must be some fanatic who had filled his wife’s head with poison—melted away like snow the instant they first met.
—It would be impossible for every conflict in the world to disappear all at once. But we can still resolve the problems piled before us one by one, always guided by reason and wisdom.
The Galeno Chryses met was an exceptionally rational and wise man.
His voice never rose, and every carefully chosen word seemed to contain the principles by which the world itself operated.
—The reason we long so desperately for the “Prepared One” is not because of some weakness that makes us…