Foreword

Dear Reader,
(9 MoE 10 CE)

I think it’s easy to get all caught up in the darkness and despair.

Good morning, everyone. As I write this, at least, it is morning. The larks are singing quite beautifully outside, and I find myself short on ink. This preamble will have to be brief.

Ten years ago, a nightmare unlike we have ever seen before destroyed a kingdom that many thought would last forever. Many saw it with their own eyes. Many despaired for months, or years afterward. Camelot was a kingdom that represented stability, order, and certainty in a world where certainty is difficult to come by.

And now…it is gone. It has been, for the past ten years. For more than half my own life.

But like I said above, it’s easy to be caught up in the dark side. To not see any silver lining in the clouds. So, today, with this novel, I hope I can remind everyone of where we came from.

Hundreds of years ago, there was a nation thought to be eternal, too. A nation built on strong leadership, on stability, on peace and prosperity after a terrible time of chaos. And yes, it was a nation that fell to a terrible dragon.

But that nation, though its walls have long since crumbled, still exists in our hearts, minds, and souls today. The statue of their finest sits at the entrance to Londinium.

Of course, if you could not tell by the title, I am referring to Exetia—and our delightful dear Daughter of Gold, Julia Augusta Alexandria.

This will be an attempt to reconcile and compile her story, from start to finish. Scholars have tried their hand at this for decades now, but with Exeter burned to the ground and documentation of the Empire scattered, it has been hard to chronicle her life. Thus, I will have to admit, a part of the tale I am about to tell you has been embellished by my own pen.

Yet, not all of it. The majority has not been written by me.

For, and this will be novel news to you all once this reaches publishing: we have found evidence of a recorder that stood by her. From her humble beginnings, to her emblazoned end, he has written countless letters for whom he called his companion.

Thus, I have compiled these letters for you—and for us, in all of Britannia.

These are the letters to Lady Julia and her family. Partially written by me, Estella Celestina.

And written by a man of antiquity, a soldier and scholar of Exetia, lost until now: Tacitus Aeneas Livia.

Let these letters lift our hearts from the darkness, and remind us that suffering is not eternal. Despair is not the end.

And we do not need crowns to be the monarchs of our own destiny.

- Estella Celestina, Daughter of Goddess Lyrinyx.