The Multiverse Chronicles
Season One: Prologue
“Window on the World”
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“Mother?” A young boy with short, tousled black hair and a fine vest peeked around the door to Patricia’s room. He slipped inside, crept along the edge of a bookshelf, then came to stand beside her chair. His mother sat upright, quietly staring out over the city they called home. A tall, recently rebuilt clock tower rose in the distance. This city was but one of many she had seen fall under the influence of her vast empire.
She turned toward her son. “Yes, my dear? What is it?”
The boy ducked his head. “I got into an argument with a couple kids today about the possibility of alternate universes.” He shuffled his feet and pouted. “They said I was crazy and had theophrenia, and they laughed at me when I told them about Benjamin. They didn’t believe that he’s real!”
She gave him a stern look. “You know you aren’t supposed to tell people about Benjamin.”
Seth’s shoulders drooped with rejection. “Sorry, Mom.”
A pang constricted in her chest. Most people would quiver with fear—reasonably so–if they crossed her. She was well-known for executing people for little-to-no reason.
But Seth didn’t so much as tremble.
Even war lords must have a soft spot, and Patricia’s was her son.
She lifted his chin with the tip of her finger and smiled weakly. “I forgive you, Seth. But you must be more careful. You know of secrets that would cause most to think you were mad with theophrenia.”
“But Mom…” His lower lip jutted in protest. “Why must they be secrets? Benjamin tells such great stories. Shouldn’t the world know about them?”
Patricia shook her head. A single strand of black hair fell across her face. She wiped it aside, noting the lackluster sheen. “No, my son,” she said softly. “I can’t explain now, you are too young to understand. But someday you will. Besides, you should not listen to Benjamin’s stories. They are as warped and cracked as his mind.”
The boy looked up at her with wide, pale blue eyes. That trait he’d gotten from his father. “Benjamin said you and Father are from another universe. Is that true?”
Patricia chuckled. “That’s an interesting theory.”
“Do you have any stories?” Seth asked in glee, likely because she hadn’t denied the fact.
She sighed. “I know of many stories.”
“Are they from another universe?”
“Theoretically.” Patricia cocked an eyebrow, and Seth’s face lit up.
That smile was worth it. She looked back out the window, out to the tall, concrete-and-metal skyscrapers amid the squat brick buildings between the tower and the river. So very different, yet all so very much the same. Patricia cleared her throat, then began.
“In an alternate world, war would soon erupt between the mechanically-inclined Prussians and the beast-commanding Britannians…”
The adventure continues in the next episode, where a beastmaster’s pride gets the best of her when she miscalculates the will of a pterosaur…
The Multiverse Chronicles 
I have begun.
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