1 Prologue: A Journey of Three

No one ever asks to be born into this world nor do we choose our experiences. If we could, we may want to be born, but we would probably choose to live a simple, calm, clear life that is straightforward with no complications or pain. Then we wouldn't have to worry about committing wrongs or making choices that end up harming ourselves or others. However, we cannot and those experiences go on to make us who we are, the decisions we make, and the paths we take.

We are born not knowing neither our own path nor anyone else's. Which means the questions of who you will meet and the effects you may have on each other will, for a time, go on without an answer. We are forced to walk through life not knowing where and to whom it will lead and how their paths will affect our own. That is what makes life so mysterious. Mystery is life.

In a kingdom in an unknown land a child is born, a boy, during the coldest winter the kingdom and its people have ever known. In a wooden home located near a town a full day's journey from the capital. A light shines out of a window from a room in the dead silence of night. A woman lays in bed, her labor finished, as she awaits for her reward to be placed in her arms. Her husband stands by her holding her hand with joy and pride in his wife and of becoming a father.

A nun from the local convent wipes her brow with a warm cloth and murmurs words of congratulations while another brings to the woman her child wrapped and cleaned in a wool blanket still crying. The new mother receives her baby with a smile of pleasure unlike any other. The child's face is illuminated by the candlelight while he lays, now quiet and content, in his mother's arms. He is then given the name Vincent.

The following spring in the royal castle as the first warm winds arrive and the harsh claws of winter releases its grip over the land, another child is born. Cries of the newborn fills the chamber as the child's mother soothes her first born. The queen's handmaidens and the present nuns congratulate her, for she has brought forth a son, a prince, and a worthy heir to the throne.

A nun returns to the chamber followed by the king whose face glows with glee and pride as he makes his way to his beloved wife and son. He greets her with a kiss and turns his attention to his child. The boy is calm and content as his parents reveal in the moment. News of this birth spreads first through the castle as if it was the sweetest aroma ever to grace a human's sense of smell. Then through the capital and the entirety of the realm. The kingdom erupts in celebration of the new arrival to the royal family who becomes known as Winston.

As spring comes and goes, the abundant season of summer makes its presence known. A baby girl is born to a wealthy and well known lord of the realm and his wife. As the sun descends towards the horizon and the air fills with the sounds of songbirds, a mother completes her task of bringing her child into the world. She recovers in a chamber in their mansion located a week's journey away from the capital. The second child born into the family, the maiden is welcomed by her mother, father, and brother. Laying securely in her mother's arms she makes not a sound as a summer's breeze comes through an opened window. A little beauty, she is awed over and adored. Taking in her person her parents bestow upon her the name Lillian.

These three children whose lives are new and just beginning will soon see how life makes its own decisions when it comes to what they shall and shall not experience and where their paths will lead them. Whether the child of winter, the child of spring, and the child of summer will cross paths no one around them can say. Neither can anyone predict what will come about because of those meetings if they should happen. Only time will tell what awaits them as their paths and tales unfold.