Prologue

Echoes

The night air was crisp and gentle. The moon hung in the sky, bigger than usual as it had reached its zenith. It cast a strong pale blue light over the palace, highlighting the wooden window frames. Kia-yun stood in the pale moonlight looking at the celestial body above. He had often thought of the moon as an eye, constantly watching for any danger. Of course if it was an eye it had obviously missed him as he was bringing danger often. Despite the moonlight Kia-yun had lit several candles in the room to give some form of ambience. Kai-yun, brown of hair, green eye's shining like emeralds, skin weathered by thirty three years of torment, standing in robes of black and red holding a glass of Avalast wine was truly one of the most morose people in the world at that moment. Kai-yun, better known as the Necromatic King, was awaiting the results of his most recent conquest. It wasn't a task that he found pleasing but it was one he had burdened himself with, for the good of all people's of Neuwrath. His task was simple: domination through battle, raise the dead to fight again to win him Neuwrath so that he would be king of all. Many people looked at him in disgust, they didn't realise why he was doing this. What he knew and they didn't. They all blamed him, shunned him and said his name in whispers. But soon they would praise him as a saviour, a protecter from things far worse than the risen dead.

"What I do, I do not for myself" He said to the moon. As if to convince himself for the thousandth time that he was doing the right thing.

"Why can they see that?" He lamented resting his left arm against the wooden window frame, his wine dancing in its glass. Kai-yun felt it then; a twinge of his magical senses informing him that his army had returned. Kai-yun looked up to the middle of the room. A black bulbous shape rose from the ground skeletal in appearance wearing leather armour that almost slid off its carapace, no skin to hold it in place. A revenant. A body re-animated given a voice.

"Your task?" Kai-yun asked.

"Completed, Master. They gave up quickly once they knew how many we were."

"And did you find any….worthy bodies?" The revenant almost tried to grin, though it bore no human features any more. If it had Kai-yun could tell what kind of face it would be making.

"Two, Master. Powerful mages though they tried to hide their prowess." Kai-yun nodded.

"Good take them to the chamber I will visit them later" The revenant bowed. 

"As you wish, Master" The revenant reverted to a black blog on the floor and disappeared. Kai-yun had originally been unsettled by the revenants but where he came from raising the dead was not considered a crime. They had done it for centuries with one of their kings. Except, the king had retained his likeness, skin and all. The revenants that Kai-yun summoned were basic, shells really to house a small fraction of his malicious mana. He returned to the window.

"They don't know what I am doing for them. This is for them, this is for the best." He lowered his head, a long time ago he would have found his next task difficult. Now however it was like lifting a finger. He wouldn't feel bad for it any more. He was doing this for a purpose, one no one could possibly fathom. 

<---……..--->

En-yue was dying. He could feel it, a grip on his soul so horrible that it was dragging him away from the mortal world. He was dying and with each moment it got a little worse. Terrathea was at his side giving out commands through a waterfall of tears, her blonde hair worn loose except for the end which was bound in a small ponytail, her cloak abandoned and used as a means for staunching the blood flowing from En-yue's wound. A horrible gash running from his left shoulder to right hip. A death blow if there ever was one. People shouted all around, men and women rushed here and there, Wakers of water arrived to perform healing magic, Marzen, his trusted lieutenant, screamed at them all, pleaded to the goddess above to save En-yue's life. 

"We have to stop the bleeding" Terrathea's voice clear in his ears. Breaking apart. Tears again. 

"Move aside give us some room" A healer. Probably Baldan. En-yue spoke.

"Tend…..tend to the others Baldan" Baldan looked at him, shook his head and continued to heal En-yue.

"Heal….them…the soldiers. Not me." 

"Shut up"

"They are-"

"Shut up, your majesty. Just shut up." Baldan shook his head again. En-yue's hearing went a little.

"Too much…"

"Can't…….the blood….."

"Damn him and his….."

"En-yue please……open…..eye's……don't" The voices were becoming indistinguishable, muffled. As he lay there En-yue saw a face, Meveria, his wife. She crowed around him placing her hands on his face, Terrathea next to him grew a little tense more reserved. En-yue looked into the eye's of his beloved and then at Terrathea next to him. She stared back shaking her head. 

"Twice as bright…..half as long" En-yue said. As he watched the people he loved dissolve into blackness. 

"One more victory before I go" he thought. A wide smile, from ear to ear. A mockery of death. And En-yue was gone.

<---…….--->

Valofor VIII was the keeper of the Grimoire Labyrinthia. He was a giant, one of the last by the reckoning of the books he read although some didn't speak of giants so perhaps he was the first. His memories of the upper world had been lost years before, he didn't remember much only that he was the eighth of his name. His memories, the books and his name all contradicted each over. If he was eighth of his name that must mean that others had come before bearing his name, meaning they were other giants. But that could also mean there were others and now there weren't. It could also be that these books were meant to deceive him. Valofor hadn't come to any real conclusions on the premise of his birth. He had wondered through all fifteen levels of the Grimoire Labyrinth years ago, he could locate any book that he wanted and since he was a giant he aged much slower than any regular creature. Nothing about the Labyrinth surprised him anymore, he knew about the birds that found their way in, about the fruit snakes that let him have take of their stock, about the deer who kept to the upper floors tending the grass that grew there and of the great waterfall that provided fresh water for him and the fish that lived there. For a sealed off Labyrinth it was certainly a fantastic place and Valofor wanted for nothing else. 

Thats why when he found the child, a boy of ten nestled upon a mound of books wearing a robe of white, Valofor for the first time in his life was surprised. Valofor had found him while looking for the grimoire, Tales of the old age. But no grimoire in existence contained anything about a boy suddenly appearing in what was essentially a luxury tomb, more was there a grimoire to detail what Valofor, a giant, should do were one to appear. Instead he just stood there dumbfounded as more animals came to look at this incredibly strange newcomer. Little did he know what he had found. 

<---…..--->

Gallad stirred. In truth, he hadn't slept all that much. Twenty two years of training had brought him to this day. A master mage. By the end of the day that was the title he would bear, he would be a master finally. He had waited for this day for several reasons, it would allow him to break away from his own master, Selice, and it also meant that he could travel to the land of Artilia below to become an explorer. Ceres, the floating content of Mages, was Gallad's home but every young man had a dream to run away every now and then. Mere drawings and classes hadn't satiated Gallad's fascination with the lower world, he wanted to explored it for himself and soon he would have that right.

 

Gallad lay in his bed for a few minutes more, thinking about his future before finally springing up. Warm sunlight flooded his room, his windows were already open thanks to the servants of his house and the breeze that blew in was warm and gentle a perfect mix. Gallad changed into his training gear. A shirt of linen, blue in colour with a sash of red around his waist, brown trousers and boots of matching colour. His brown hair had been cut short a couple of days back and his face was shaven, no "rust" as his father called it was present. He smiled in the mirror liking the look; he grabbed his mages cloak that hung on the back of his chair and finally his sword. Gallad had always been of the same opinion of his father when it came to blades, they don't have to look impressive as long as they get the job done that was enough. His sword, Saradran, was a simple steel sword folded twice for more weight but not so much that it was unwieldily. The guard was a little different from others in the form of an X with leather for extra protection. Gallad frowned, on further inspection the blade was quite elaborate not at all simple. As he was leaving the room he remembered something.

"Damn almost left without it again.." He thought. Returning to his desk he pulled out a shimmering blue crystal almost as big as his hand, small white lights danced around inside the crystal. A Mana Crest Chamber. It contained five charges of Supreme Mana, to be used in situations of life an death. It give's its user one minute of unlimited mana use and cuts incantations in half allowing a mage to become a force of destruction. All mages on their sixteenth birthday are given one. Gallad smiled remembering when he had gotten his Chamber.

"Almost there. All those years." He said to himself. He turned back to the door.

"Well then, Lets begin"

I dream of things not yet written. Of people you haven't yet met. Of times that haven't yet passed. I will make these dreams real. No second guesses. This is my dream, my ideas flow like a river. And its time I did something with it. 

So I welcome you to a story of Magic. Of war and battle, of adventure and love. I welcome you to Ceres. I welcome you to Neuwrath. I welcome you to my Story. 

I promise to see it through to the end.

Thanks 

G