Slumber

Prologue

She never woke up.

Briar, a nation of wilderness with fields of linseed blossoms dotted with mauve petals, where legends lived and bloomed from the branches of pomegranate trees. Creatures from every ocean, sky, and land came to Briar, in hope of making some extraordinary discovery. Shadows whispered that even standing near its borders could grant you your wildest dreams. 

Her Heart was, perhaps, considered to be even more uncanny. In the past, it had been viewed as the most precious part of Briar, but slowly, the forest that enclosed it became wilder. Trees moved, creatures became venomous, rivers whose water could make you forget your own name formed. No one knew why, and for a century, no one dared to venture in, or out, for many had found themselves entombed within the Heart. And thus, the once precious Heart of Briar had become a makeshift underworld, populated by spirits.

And it was there where Lyre was kept. Where she slept waiting for their curse to be broken.

But when the time came, she didn’t wake up. She instead joined other souls of the Heart.

***

Aurore.

Briar’s best seamstress. She could sew music into petticoats and make corsets out of constellations. Many claimed that she had been taught how to sew from the Gods themselves.

She may have been the nation, if not the world’s, most talented seamstress, but Aurore was no heroine. And yet, she was the first person in a hundred years to cross the Stygian forest into the Heart.

But not by choice.