*Edit* I've adjusted this as much as possible without elimininating what is in my opinion vital information. Some chunks have been moved and will be seen in the first chapter, but it's as much as I can do (per the first comment). I'm not happy about all the paragraph breaks, but for the sake of easier reading, I guess I have to deal with it.
This is the prologue to the novel/novella I'm currently working on. I still don't know what it will really end up being by the time I'm done with it. I don't really know for sure what the rating should be, but because of some of the themes in the novel, I'm giving the prologue a 16+ rating, I'm not sure whether or not some subsequent chapters should be marked as 16+ or 18+ so they will be marked as 18+
Prologue--The city of Aeir
The city of Aeir, though prosperous, was not the best place to live. The streets were alive with all sorts of tradesmen offering services, and there was no end to the variety of delicacies available. If you were searching to satiate the human appetite, you needed to look no further then Aeir. Merchants knew of this city as one of the best places to sell all sorts of exotic goods and services, since there was no restriction to be found. Though frowned on by nearby cities, Aeir offered slave traders the option to sell their goods without persecution.
In fact, the governor of Aeir, Jarod, was heavily involved in the trade himself, and the city officials and guards were under his payroll to ensure that this profitable market remained available. This trade market was not in any way discreet, and in fact, there was an entire section of the public marketplace dedicated solely to the buying and selling of slaves.
This was a city where people had become comfortable with the exploitation of their fellow man and woman, because it meant prosperous living for the rest. No one asked questions about the people being sold; no one asked how they became slaves. Nobody cared so long as it was not them stripped naked on the auction block to be sold to the highest bidder.
Considering the conditions, one would wonder why anyone trying to raise a family would remain within the limits of this corrupt society. Sometimes by the time you realize you need to escape, it is too late to do so. The protection the city offered was some of the best you could find. A city with coffers as extensive as those of Aeir could afford to protect what it desired, even if funded by something as evil as the selling of human lives.
The city was built against the ancient forest of Selliadora, and walls surrounded the three sides not guarded by the forest. A much smaller wall was constructed on the forest side. The wall constructed to separate the forest from the city itself was little more than a fence to stop the animals from attacking citizens; it was a stone wall standing six feet tall. The forest itself was considered haunted, and very rarely were attempts made by anyone to navigate within its borders.
On the Northern, southern, and eastern sides of the city, huge walls of stone were constructed to enclose the city against the forest. These walls stood a staggering thirty-six feet high and fifteen feet thick. The northern and southern walls stretched east from Selliadora for five stadia (One stadium being six hundred feet), while the eastern wall that connected them measured a staggering length of eight stadia.
The eastern wall had bastions with ballistae every quarter-stadium along its length. It had a large double gate halfway along its length which served as the primary entrance to the city. The northern wall had bastions positioned in the same manner, but no gate, since it was deemed pointless. There were no major cities in the north with which Aeir necessitated trades, and therefore had no need for a gate on the northern wall. The southern wall had bastions along its length as the northern and eastern walls, and there was a single reinforced gate on this wall to provide a secondary entrance and exit to the city.
Sentries constantly patrolled all of the walls, and the ballistae were manned constantly to quell any attempted attack by a foreign power. Aeir was considered one of the most fortified cities of its day, and it stood as a stronghold of evil in sight of many foreign cities. No attack had ever succeeded in breaching the walls or getting through the gates.
Raising a family in the city of Aeir was not the dream that Hannah’s parents envisioned, but in the face of certain destruction, it was the only place to which they could have fled. Originally from a small town on the city outskirts, they found themselves helpless against an army advancing from the east. They had only two choices: be destroyed the hostile army, or flee to the city of Aeir and start a new life behind its protective walls. They knew the evils committed in this city, but for the sake of preserving their lives they made the journey. They told themselves that they would move out of the city when it became possible, but the siege lasted longer than anyone could have expected.
It was only because the city had a secret, though treacherous, route through Selliadora that additional supplies were able to be transported into the city. The haunted forest became the sole lifeline in the last few months of the siege. Although there were more supplies that were lost than there were that made it through, there were barely enough provisions to sustain the city. Eventually, due to the cost of maintaining the siege, and the conclusion that there was not an end in sight, the hostile army ended the siege and retreated.
Aeir had survived, and protected its citizens. By the end of the three year siege, the couple that had fled for safety had already born their first child, Hannah, who was by this time two years old. They couldn’t leave legally now, as the law of this city was that anyone born within the city limits could not leave until they reached adulthood.
Advancing eighteen years, the couple had become involved with a secret organization which sought to overthrow the current governor, and end the evil slave trade in the city. Hannah also had a sister, Charity, who was now eight years old. Although the couple knew that their associations left their children in danger, they sought desperately to escape the walls which protected them so long ago. Where once they looked at the walls as a fortress of protection, they now saw an enormous prison.
