Before the Oracle, There Were Honey Cakes

Originally posted 2/7/2025 - revised 7/22/2026

Some parts of a story feel planned.

Others feel as though they have been following you for years, waiting for you to finally write them down.

Marro and Eralius have always been that for me.

In The Veiled Core Chronicles, they stand close to some of the largest forces in the story: an empire changing beneath them, a faith beginning to fracture, political power gathering around the Board, and Arath-Bar pressing his will into every part of their lives.

But when I think about the two of them, I do not begin with thrones, doctrine, or divine power.

I begin with honey cakes.

A fifteen-year-old boy and a thirteen-year-old girl sit together in the sunlight, laughing as though the world is simple and always will be. It may be the sweetest moment in the entire Veiled Core universe.

That is exactly why it hurts.

Once you know what is coming, the scene cannot remain innocent. The shadow is already there, even if they cannot see it yet. Every laugh carries the knowledge of what will be asked of them. Every easy word exists beside the distance that will one day grow between them.

Before the Scale is a prequel piece built around three moments.

First comes the sweetness. Two children, easy trust, and the kind of closeness that feels permanent when you are young.

Then comes the turn.

Marro stands upon the dais and announces what she has become. The room changes around her. The people watching understand that the rules have shifted, including Eralius.

Finally, there is the Board.

There, Marro stops being someone the room can overlook or dismiss. She becomes a presence everyone else must rearrange themselves around.

That movement, from girl to Oracle, is one of the most important transformations in the series. But for me, the real tragedy is not that she gains power.

It is what that power takes from both of them.

Their love does not disappear.

It simply stops belonging entirely to them.

It becomes wrapped in duty, faith, ceremony, fear, and the needs of an Empire. What was once simple becomes useful to other forces. Their affection survives, but it is no longer free.

That is what makes this backstory, to me, the sweetest and most bitter part of the Veiled Core universe.

If you have read The Nine Who Remembered or The Remembering, Before the Scale sits beside them as another artifact from within the world. Each reveals a different side of the same larger history: the creation of divine power, the cost of remembrance, and the human lives caught beneath both.

And if you are new to The Veiled Core Chronicles, this may be the best place to begin.

It will not explain everything.

It is not meant to.

But it will show you the heart of the story before the Empire hardens around it.

Before the Board.

Before the Oracle.

Before the scale.

Read Before the Scale here.

— J.A. Raithe