Page 1 of Cruel Legacy

Prologue

Paxton Cox

“What do you think?”

I’m in the leadership room of my frat house with Garret Marques the fraternity recruitment coordinator. We both have stacks of papers in front of us with the names of potential candidates for joining Rho Beta Psi, our fraternity. It’s a solid selection pool, but none of the names stand out as being exceptional.

We also have copies of the membership rosters and prospective candidates for all the other fraternities on campus. Without question, Rho Beta Psi is the best fraternity, yet our enrollment numbers have been down over the last two years, and it’s not because we aren’t accepting new members.

The Student Engagement Center sent out a campus wide survey, asking students how they view school life and extra-curricular activities. The results were less than flattering. Rho Beta Psi throws the best parties, we have the best booze, and the sexiest women shaking their asses; our philanthropic endeavors are widely reported, and our charitable donations unmatched.

Our alumni are judges, professional athletes, and world leaders, yet, the results showed less than ten percent of the guys who took part in the survey want to join our fraternity. A follow up question asked why, and those answers pretty much said the same thing. Why bother pledging when they know they’ll get rejected, because we’re too exclusive.Too elite.

I think it’s a bunch of bullshit. Trash responses from people bitching because they know they wouldn’t make the cut or we’ve already rejected them during pledge season. How can you be too elite? The more exclusive you are, the more prestige you get, the more power you accumulate. We’d lose credibility if we accepted everyone who pledges.

If it were up to me, I wouldn’t be wasting my time with this batch of names or care that our numbers are down. We should only want people joining who genuinely want to be here. But the organization behind Rho Beta Psi doesn’t see it the same way. Fewer prospects for our fraternity means fewer prospects forthem.

The League of the Daggered Ravens. A secret society,so secret, you’ve likely never even heard of them. You’ll never find their membership list, or see anything printed in the newspaper or online blogs about their existence. They’re ghosts, not even whispered about, and yet they’ve influenced, erected, and decimated countries and careers; with a single call or swipe of a pen generation after generation.

I turn over another student profile and read the hobbies on the back. World politics being decided twenty years from now could very well be impacted by one of these names.

Garrett’s still waiting for an answer to my question. I give him an answer he probably won’t like hearing. “I think this assignment they gave you is a test. It’s not supposed to yield prospects. It’s the kind of task we all get from time to time. Busy work.”

I’ve heard the rumors. Certain members of The League think it’s time to expand our recruitment pool, but I don’t really believe it’ll happen. It shouldn’t happen. The foundation by which the league operates has worked for centuries. Why change it?

Garrett sighs. I hear the frustration in his voice. “I’ve been at it all summer. Wouldn’t they have told me to stop looking by now?”

Would they? It’s hard to say. I’ve overheard a few conversations I shouldn’t have and I know those old fucks have us doing a lot of things just to amuse themselves. “Maybe. It’s possible whatever committee is spearheading this recruitment drive will start the pre-selection process, but something tells me no one you suggest will make it to the final ceremony.”

I drop the profile I’m holding. “But by then, The League will have already learned all the applicant’s secrets and taken advantage of whatever usefulness they have.”

By the time the prospects are officially rejected, their families will be so indebted to The League they won’t know how to untangle themselves from their clutches. This is how the council builds power. This is how members advance up the leadership ladder within the league and stay in control, well past their prime.

A council position isn’t easy to win, and the governing term has the longevity of a Supreme Court appointment. I’ve only heard of two transfers of power over the last forty or fifty years. Those seats came up for grabs when the council members “retired”.

In our worldretire, is just another name for too cognitively disoriented to make sound decisions or dead. Case in point, the oldest councilman is eighty-three years old, and there’s no reason to think he won’t be healthy enough to do the job for another ten years, while he continues to cheat on his forty-two-year-old wife, with his twenty-seven-year-old mistress.

I’m not judging. If his saggy old balls give those ladies thrills, I say fuck their brains out until his heart quits. In our world, everyone has their thing and with power comes opportunity. It’s been drilled in my head from an early age, whatever I want in this world is mine for the taking, and I. Want. It. All.

I look back down at the stack of folders in front of me. If helping Garrett go over a list of names to help bolster our fraternity numbers gets me in the council’s good graces, I’m happy to do it.

I see the intensity on his face as he pours over another application. He wants to find that gold ticket prospect and is desperate to please the council members. To be recognized. To prove he’s an asset to the organization.

There are two phases to joining The League of the Daggered Ravens. Pre-selection screening and initiation. If you make it through pre-selection screening, you become a Prospect. An official member of the initiation group. Similar to a pledge at a fraternity or sorority. Prospects are called Wrens and it’s all most initiates really care about. If you’re a Prospect, you’re on the council’s radar and afriendfor as long as you live. Friends get perks, although the relationship is never on equal footing. Prospects will always do more for The League of the Daggered Ravens than The League will ever do for them.

The prospect period lasts as long or as short as the selection committee decides. Anyone selected to initiate when the prospect period ends, will write their ticket in this world.

Not every member in Rho Beta Psi is privy to the existence of The League of the Daggered Ravens, and not every Prospect or Initiate advances through the steps at the same level. I’m a legacy born, which means the men in my family have been members of The League of the Daggered Ravens since its inception. It also means the hoops I have to jump through are multi-faceted.

One day, when I’ve done everything they require to prove myself, I’ll embrace their oath, swear my allegiance to their ranks, and be reborn a full-fledged member. On that day, the initiate pin I’ll wear will turn into a brand signifying a bond that cannot be severed or forsaken.

My life, my loyalty, will belong to The League, and theirs to me in return. We’ll be an unshakeable, powerful force. I can’t imagine anything better.

So even though I think this screening process is a waste of my time, I dig back in. There’s a bigger picture here and I do my part to support The League.

Chapter1

Theona LaReaux

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