Prologue Part 1
Beneath a dark and starry night sky, a noblewoman walked gracefully through her garden, tending to her precious flowers. She stopped at a withering rose bush, and as she reached out to heal it, the stars rained down from the heavens. The sight was terrifyingly beautiful, blurring the line between wonder and doom. She stared at it all completely hypnotized, unaware that after this event, the world as she knew it would never be the same again.
Once the final flicker had passed, the sky returned to its dark and peaceful state. The woman had to catch her breath after that, but she heard something. A ringing in her ear. A faint and distant sound. One she just could not ignore. She searched all around the garden, traversing through its many sections until she finally found it. And what she saw flooded her heart with a complex bundle of emotions.
Behind a row of bushes, lay a tiny baby human no bigger than her palm. It was dirty, buck naked and had small blonde hair. She picked it up and immediately cradled it in her arms, trying to get it to stop crying. As awkward as her movements may have been, they worked. The baby stopped crying, allowing the woman to get a better look at it.
It's a boy!
Indeed he was. But that was not the only thing that caught her eye.
Those eyes!
His eyes were a glowing gold, unlike anything she had ever seen before. She got completely lost in them before a breeze brought her back to her senses, and she rushed back inside the house with him in her arms.
Once inside, she called for one of her servants, "Sylvia!" And a few moments later, a young servant girl wearing a gray robe with long white hair appeared before her, "Yes, my Lady," she greeted with a bow. She noticed the small naked baby in her arms but before she could ask any questions, her mistress gave her an order. "Please get this baby cleaned and covered, then bring him back to me." She took the baby and then left to follow her orders, "As you wish, Lady Isabella".
***
Sylvia rushed to the backside of the house near the servant's quarters, and ran into a few of the many servants that worked at the mansion. "Sylvia, what is that?", asked one of the other servants. "It's a baby," Sylvia answered. "He is so small and precious. Whose baby is it?" they asked again.
"I don't know, Lady Isabella handed him to me and requested that I get him clothed." A few more servants came in and they were all also shocked by the baby. "Aww, he is so cute, who's this little guy?" another servant came to ask. Slyvia sighed and said in slight frustration, "I don't know who this baby is, or who he belongs to. I am merely following orders. Now if you'll excuse me." She walked past the crowd and entered one of the small rooms.
***
It didn't take long for Sylvia to finish wrapping the baby in a small soft blanket and she headed back into the living room to hand her back to Isabella. The main living room gleamed with white and gold. White walls framed three plush sofas, lacquered tables and furniture all etched with shimmering cold carvings that shone just as brightly as the large crystal chandelier above them. Isabella sat on one of the smaller sofas, sipping tea beside a marble table holding pastries and a vase with a single lotus blossom.
"Here he is, my Lady." Isabella took the child back into her arms and smiled warmly. Sylvia hesitated for a moment before asking, "um, excuse me, my Lady, but if I may ask, whose child is this?"
"I don't know. I found him in the garden naked and crying after that wonderful show the sky put on"
Sylvia lit up with excitement, "you saw it too, Lady Isabella? It was quite beautiful was it not? I mean, the sky was dark for one second and then the next, boom! It was all ablaze with light." Isabella chuckled then said, "indeed it was. I was quite frightened at first. I thought the world was about to end, then I found myself awestruck by the sheer beauty of it all." Isabella paused for a moment then turned her attention to the baby. "I think I'll adopt this boy and make him my own." Sylvia was taken aback for a second by what she said. "Are you sure, my Lady? Is he not someone else's child?"
Isabella replied, "Well, yes he is. But I found him in the garden just now, naked and crying, completely abandoned. It's clear to me that whoever birthed this child had no intention of raising him, so why not?" Sylvia couldn't argue with that logic, "I see". Isabella stared at the boy, admiring the beauty of a newborn baby. It brought a pang of sadness to her heart. "I always wanted to have a child of my own. One that looked like me, acted like me, and was me". Her voice cracked. Sylvia wasted no time comforting her, "Well, now you do have a baby, Lady Isabella. And he's a very cute one as well, with his blonde hair and blue eyes".
Isabella stared at her, puzzled. "Blue? His eyes are gold. And they were shining like little stars." Sylvia looked at her with the same puzzled expression. "But, when I looked at him, his eyes were blue, my Lady." Isabella decided to take another close look at him, which was difficult since the boys eyes were shut. She lightly tapped him on his stomach until he opened his eyes, showing Isabella that they were in fact, a deep ocean blue, exactly like her's. "Oh my"
The baby closed his eyes again, leaving Isabella dumbfounded. "But… his eyes were gold. I saw them. I looked deep into his eyes and saw gold" Sylvia did not try to continue the debate and instead shifted the focus elsewhere. "So… what shall you name him, Lady Isabella?"
Isabella calmed down and stared at him again. She thought about all the different names she could give him, names she had always fantasized about calling her children. But at some point during her mental search, her thoughts strayed from name ideas to vivid memories of her older brother, her hero, protector, guardian and source of strength and inspiration for a majority of her life before his passing.
A smile appeared on her face as she reminisced, now fantasizing about the baby in her arms one day being the same type of person her brother was. A heartwarming smile formed on her face and before she knew it, her heart had already chosen the perfect name for him as she whispered,
"Matteo"