My name is Elide Lochan. My parents are dead. My life is just survival, built from ash and tears. I want revenge.

I was born two years after my parent's wedding, in Peranth, the second largest city in Terrasen. My father was Cal Lochan the Lord of Peranth and my mother his Lady – Marion Lochan. But she wasn't always a Lady. When my mother was born she was a bastard-born commoner, a laundress in the royal palace of Orynth. Our king Orlon was childless and unmarried, his only heir was his nephew Rhoe. A few years after my mother started working at the palace it was announced that Prince Rhoe Galathinius would be marrying the Princess Evelyn Ashryver. Everyone was excited to see this princes who would one day be their queen. When the Princess was introduced to my father she spilt ink on his shirt, my father didn't notice and Evelyn enlisted the help of my mother to clean it. However my father caught her and soon after he became the clumsiest man in the palace, managing to stain every shirt in his wardrobe. No one was surprised when he announced his intent to marry my mother. Princess Evelyn was delighted, having already formed a fast friendship with her. My mother was appointed her Lady in waiting and was the second highest lady in Terrasen. I often wish that they hadn't been so friendly, if they weren't my mother may still of been alive… somewhere.

A year before my birth came one even more important, the birth of Aelin Ashryver Galathinius, future Queen of Terrasen. She hated it. I was never good friends with her, but I knew that she had no wish to be queen, she saw it as a set of golden chains that would prevent her from freedom. But what she hated most was her power, not the power of the throne but the flames that would fly in reaction with her emotions, the power she couldn't control. Before their marriage everyone had been worried about what mix the Ashryver and Galathinius bloodlines would cause. Evelyn was the granddaughter of Mab, one of the three sister queens of the fae and Rhoe was descended from Brannon the first king of Terrasen and one of the few fire wielding fae. Maeve, Mab's sister, feared what the outcome of this marriage would be. The outcome was Aelin. Aelin didn't inherit Mab's power over water, or at least only a drop, she inherited the heat and flame of Brannon and it terrified her. The other noble children in the palace feared her including me. Her only friend was her cousin Aedion Ashryver. They were as two peas in a pod, loyal and proud and caring of each other. Aedion loved her like a sister and would have done anything for her; she was his world so much that her death would have almost killed him, as it is I heard somewhere that he works for our depressors now. Why, I cannot fathom. Perhaps he truly is a traitor. Perhaps he somehow hopes to save what little remains of our once glorious country, if so he's doing more than I am.

The day Ardalan invaded was the day hell came to earth, for all of us. Aelin was at her parents' country estate with her family, excluding the king who was entertaining foreign guests at court, and my mother, Aelin's nursemaid. I mentioned that King Orlon was entertaining foreign guests, those guests were the King of Ardarlan and his wimpy, pretty flower of a son – Crown Prince Dorian Havilliard. I said he was wimpy, so was I by northern standards, but even I could hold a sword, my father insisted so I could defend myself in case something happened. Something did happen. During the banquet Aelin apparently experienced some sort of sickness. Evelyn and my mother blamed Maeve, but now I'm not sure, maybe Ardarlan was behind it ?Either way she fainted, causing Rhoe, Evelyn, Aelin and my mother retired to the country leaving my father and the King to endure the Ardarlan parasites. It didn't last long. They soon returned south and we all breathed a sigh of relief at the reprieve, we didn't know what was to come.

The next morning King Orlon was found dead in his bed, murdered. When someone finally thought to send a rider to the country estate the same fate appeared to have befallen Rhoe and Evelyn. My mother's body was found beneath the wooden arch of the servant's entrance bloody and torn, her head a few metres away. Aelin was nowhere to be seen.