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Prolog

Somewhere in the Universe, an undiscovered planet was bustling with energy as its inhabitants went through their daily routines. Women rose and cared for the house and children. Men left early in the morning to work the fields or to sell goods in the city. Children played in the areas surrounding their homes. The ruling cast in the cities enjoyed the indolence granted to them from their positions of wealth and power. Slaves moved through their master’s dwelling tidying the home and catering to their every whim. Everyone was unaware of the stranger who would soon be amongst them and the changes that she would bring to their lives.

The planet didn’t go by any specific name, because the inhabitants were unaware that they were not alone in the Universe. From their skies all they could see were their five moons, two suns, and more stars dotting the night sky. The system was an anomaly in the vastness of space. It was a binary star system with two stars the size of our own sun circling one another. Orbiting the binary stars was a single planet and its five moons. The planet was much like the terrestrial planets in our own system, but the size was on an unimaginable scale more comparable to Neptune. The planet was abundant with water and lush tropical forests. There were only small pockets of deserts dotting the surface and much of the planet was habitable. None of the inhabitants knew what snow or ice were, since much of the planet maintained its warm temperatures all year and the only spots cold enough for ice were at the poles and uninhabited. There was only a single large land mass that had rivers running through it carrying water to the area, much the way capillaries provide blood to the body. About half of the planet was nothing more than a vast ocean with no visible land.

There were three different groups of people coexisting on the massive planet creating an archaic caste system of slaves, workers, and rulers. All of the species were humanoid in appearance but the basic features differed between the groups. The slave caste was made up of a pygmy sized people. They were all short in stature with pronounced spines that made them all look as if they were undernourished. Their faces maintained a childlike appearance well into adulthood so it was virtually impossible to tell if a servant was fifteen or thirty cycles old. They were garbed in plain, homespun, tunics that were belted at the waist. The color of the tunic was an identification of which part of the house the servant belonged to. The working class was comprised of men grew to seven feet and the women by contrast were almost all below six feet in height. This group could easily be identified by their inky black hair and sapphire blue eyes. Everyone in the working caste shared a protruding ridge that graced their brow lines and wide flat noses which also distinguished them as a people. The men wore long loose shirts and breeches, while the women wore simple dresses with no decoration. The ruling caste was somewhat of an oddity. They were of average build, and they did not seem to have anything that showed them to be the strongest of the three groups of people. They were a diverse group of people who had many variations within physical appearance. They were set apart from the other groups by their feline features. They all shared eyes like those of cats, but they came in a variety of colors. They were not relegated to the same green-gold that is primarily seen in cats. They also had pronounced points to their ears which made them easy to separate from a crowd.

The governing group seemed to rely heavily on birth right to determine who controlled what positions, but the position of ruler was determined through a grand tournament. This way they could be certain that the strongest and most cunning man was the one to lead their people. Beneath the king there was a vast network of lesser rulers that had control of smaller plots of land. The political power of an individual was directly tied to the wealth and prosperity of their holding. It created cutthroat competition between the land owners when it came to making trades with other groups. The holdings with resources that were rarer were often the wealthiest. A few of these lesser rulers had managed to elevate their position by specializing in the production of high quality goods such as fine fabrics. Two times each year these lesser rulers would meet at the palace of the King to settle disputes and conduct their business with the others.

The ruler lived within a vast city at the heart of civilization. The area was located around a massive inland lake from which all of the land’s rivers originated. All groups placed great importance on the location of the King’s palace. They believed that their ruler was both the giver of life, bringer of death, and their enforcer of justice. It was symbolically significant that he be the heart of their world as he was the focal point of their daily lives. The position of monarch on this secluded world was not only a position of political power, but also one of great religious power. It was the king who set the mandates for the worship of the pantheon of gods and goddesses.

The day progressed for this small and unknowing planet. Men returned from their work and slaves finally bedded down after completing all of their work. Children ate and were ushered off to sleep by their exhausted mothers after their activities of the day. The King worried over his decisions of the day and the well being of all his people. They didn’t know that the woman who would soon be amongst them would upset their orderly lives forever, and they had no idea that all of their beliefs and rules were soon to be challenged. If the King had received any indication of the impact that she would have on his people and on his own person and heart he may have been more weary of offering aid to a stranger in need.