PROLOGUE
“You’re supposed to be in bed”. The little girl squeaked and dropped the book that her nose was stuck in. The luminous fish around her were spooked as much as she was and snapped off their natural lights before darting off to hide. The little girl followed their lead, grabbing her favorite blanket and pulling it over her head, employing that little kid logic that said if no one could see her, she was invisible. “Nice try, young lady, but I know you’re awake.”
The little girl visibly floundered before she crawled out from underneath her blanket, grabbed her book, and swam up to the surface of her aquatic sanctuary to meet the voice of authority that had caught her. She poked her head out of the water, but only up to her nose, hiding the rest of herself beneath the water. She gave her guppy eyes to the tall man standing at the edge of her pool. Despite the fact that his stance was wide and strong with his arms were crossed over his chest, he didn’t look angry beneath the hood of his black cloak. Not truly angry anyways. One of his eyebrows was raised on his head and a smirk was playing upon his bearded lips as he looked down at her.
“Care to tell me what you’re doing up so late?” Keeping the bottom half of her face bellow the water, she answered in bubbling gargles. “... Reading.”
“Reading what?” The little girl swam to the edge of her pool and handed the book up to the man. He knelt down to take it and looked at the cover. It was a simple, leather-bound book with no title or author name, but it did have nineteen small, glass orbs set to look like the constellation of Orion the Hunter. Seeing this cover made the man’s brows furrow together before looking at the little girl, who was still hiding half of her face beneath the water. “Where did you find this?”
The little girl answered timidly, but with her mouth still beneath the water, it came out as indistinguishable gurgles. The man had to adjust his look so that he was looking at her from beneath his eyebrows. The look made her raise her entire head out of the water and restate her answer more clearly; “In the secret room behind the bookcase in the library.”
After the man tried to read her to see if she was lying, he sighed as his shoulders fell. “You weren’t supposed to find that until tomorrow. It was supposed to be your birthday surprise.”
“I can still act surprised,” she offered to cheer him up.
“That’s not the point, sweetie. I wanted to be the one to show it to you. I wanted to see your face when you saw it.”
“... I’m sorry, daddy.” The little girl swam to the edge of her pool and climbed out of the water, wrapping her arms around her father’s neck, thinking a hug was all that was needed to fix any situation. She started to worry that her hug wasn’t working when her father didn’t immediately return it, but she breathed a sigh of relief when he engulfed her in his arm and stood up with her.
“It’s alright, my little Water-Bearer. I supposed I should’ve known you would find your reading room. You always were a curious little one.”
With a wide, bright smile, the little girl rubbed her face against her father’s beard, enjoying the itchiness of it. She then pulled away to look at him in the face. “That whole room is just for me?”
“The room and everything in it. Every book is all for you.” “Thank you daddy!” She threw her arms back around her father’s neck, making them both laugh.
“You’re welcome, my little Water-Bearer. Now, it’s time for bed. You can explore your reading room tomorrow. For now, you need rest.” The man stepped into the water of the pool, walking down the stairs until he was waist deep. He was about to plunge in to swim down to her bed when the little girl stopped him.
“But daddy! I’m not tired!” “You’ll be tired tomorrow if you don’t get some sleep. You don’t want to sleep through your birthday, do you?”
“... No...” “I didn’t think so.” “But a bed time story would help me sleep better.” Her father gave her skeptical look which she answered with her guppy eyes again. “... Alright. Which bed time story do you want?”
“That one.” She pointed down to the book, which was still in her father’s free hand. He lifted the book back up to look at it and gave his daughter another skeptical look.“That’s an awfully long bedtime story.”
“Pleeeeeeeeeaaaaaaaaaassssssssssseeeeeeeee.” The little girl hugged her father tightly as she begged him to read the book to her. She kissed his face over and over again to further convince him to give in just this one time. She could feel her father try to stay strong, but every kiss and every squeeze put a chink in his armor. Finally, he
sighed and backed up a bit to sit down on the stairs that lead into the pool. He set his daughter down in the middle of his lap and set the book down in front of her. The moment he cracked the book open to the first page written in blue ink, the glass orbs on the front cover glowed a gentle cobalt color.