VERSE O NE In Cadenza my homeland everything is flat and calm covered in grass and clover I used to run through open fields and Mother and Father would chase after me We skipped rocks on a lake said to have been made from Caé’s joyful tears when She created the world Cadenza is full of stories like that stories my parents parents told me with vigor Cadenza got its name from the Goddess after all the Place Where Caé Fell And there were whispers always that Caé Herself had been seen there again But Lucio and I had been traveling through the kingdom of Basso for two years now and day by day we journeyed farther from home The soft beauty of Cadenza’s fields was almost forgotten to me We were in the Bassan mountains where the air was thin and crisp and cold The lakes were frozen over The grass was gray and trampled Worse still for two years now war had left scars upon this land as well as my homeland Mountains had great chunks missing Houses had been turned into piles of brick and wood The forests had been 1
