I am in this story.

Briefly at the beginning, but much later in the tale, I come back in. I heard you were compiling a history of the known world and thought to offer up what I could. I applaud your ambition, though I am doubtful you could construct an accurate retelling without my help. You see, the tale begins much earlier than you or anyone else could know. It starts in the territory of Arcliff, on the Isle, when Lady Mira was only a girl. I had the good fortune of meeting her then and, many years later, hearing the story from her own lips.

Many things have been said about her. Almost all of them are lies. She was not a witch, a drunken whore, or a villain. Of course, some within the story believed all of these things, and like with most men and women, there were times she acted impulsively or harshly, and, on occasion, she drank more than her share of the wine.

I will attempt to keep what others have told me out of the story and tell it exactly as she did, endeavouring to leave my personal biases aside. This may be difficult, as she did not end up with the man I thought she should have. And the person I felt most fit to rule did not end up wearing a crown.

You may at first wonder why I have chosen to begin so early in the tale, not with any of the mythic kings or heroic invasions or the forming of the first great alliance (or the second one, for that matter). I hope that as you read, you begin to understand how everything came from one formative year in Lady Mira’s life. I have not yet heard an account that presents her as she truly was.

Her story, and therefore the history of the world as we know it, began the way many young women’s do. It began with her falling in love.