The Shadow and the Sun
Stars as glittering diamonds fell from the sky this night. The night when the balance of the world was to be shifted and things, taken for granted were to be ripped away, and the known was to be questioned. Anything was to be possible on this impenetrable darkness, void of any scrap of light un-belonging to the falling stars. With the coming of the dawn the sun rose as a deep crimson, almost blood red eye surrounded by an iris of amethyst purple and sapphire blue. For this was a new day in a new age, although many have not yet realized the subtle usurpation of power. Few among the living knew that God was dead.


“It’s the shadows, see? You have to watch the shadows. Inside the light there lies the darkest night, and in that night…things of evil intent wait. Yes, it is in the shadows that you must watch, and wait. If you ever intend to be anything more than what you are, you must learn to harness your fears and guide your emotions. That is the only way,” the boy no older than twelve remembered his father telling him as he trembled at the sight of the glowing yellow eyes staring at him from within the blanket of the void. “Besides, it is only a cat. Something must have spooked him. Possibly the raging winds outdoors, or the loud footsteps of our approach. Nothing to fear see? Here, take the poor thing and find it something to eat, it must be cold, hungry, and frightened nearly out of its wits. You better get used to taking care of it, it found you for a reason son.”
As he was looking for something to feed this white creature with piercing blue eyes, he started thinking of names to call him, because it was quite obviously a him. “I think I’ll call you…”


“Eidos, hey, come over here!” the man with long wavy dark brown hair shouts over his shoulder to his unusual pet. “Look at this! What do you think it is?”
The cat, christened Eidos (named for something seen or something that has form), strolled up to the spot where his master and friend stood and glanced at what so enthralled his interest. “I’m not sure Wylde, it looks fascinating though, perhaps we should take it back to the tower?” The tower of which Eidos spoke was the home of both him and Wylde. Wylde was only a boy when he found this mysterious feline who had the ability to not only speak, but to change form as well. Now, as a young man no older than in his early twenties, he stood quite tall no shorter than six and a half feet with not so broad shoulders. He was intelligent beyond his years and well known for his achievements, but he was not very skilled with anything that required brute strength. He studied under the tutelage of the archpriest of Isam, who just so happened to be his father.
Zro Wylde stood outside on the highest balcony of his tower staring at the two shapes slowly taking form beneath him. One was his son, Carthra and the other was his son’s very strange companion Eidos. He never understood what brough Eidos to Isam, but he had a hunch that it was because of his son. His son possessed to be the greatest mage in the land of Akkandri, but only if he lived long enough to do so. Zro was not the only man keeping an eye on his son. There were many others out there who would do anything to see his son dead.

“Father! Father!” Carthra Wylde shouts from below. “We found something you should look at. Neither of us are sure what it means, but perhaps you can tell us.”

“Come inside son, and I will have a look at it, although I am not sure that I will be able to tell you what it is, but I would give it a try.”

Within the confines of their tower, Zro, Cathra, and Eidos stand around the table staring at the strange object lying upon it. “It is a book, a book of dark magic for I cannot read it. I may know what this book is, but pray that I am wrong, for if I am right it will mean evil has come once more into our town.” Zro explained, troubled by the sudden appearance of this book.

“Once more? There was once another woman who lived in this tower was there not sir? Eioden was her name if I remember correctly.” Eidos asked, now in the form of a little boy with long silver hair and those piercing blue eyes.

“Yes, Eioden was her name. She was the master of this tower long before I ever acquired it, she was a woman of great strength and wise beyond her years. However, she was cruel and ambitious. She believed that anyone weaker than she, meaning the common people, deserved nothing more than to be enslaved and put to work doing jobs to further the ends of the magical order. As you know, there are four very different orders of magic. There are those of us who choose to help the people, those who choose to stay neutral, those who seek only power, and those who left the world long ago. Those were known as the Sancroa, or ‘those who are gone’. The Sancroa were the most powerful of our order and were able to do wonderful things, using both the good and the evil magics in their work. They are lost now, but Eioden was the last of his kind, and she was also my wife and your mother Cathran.”

“What?! What do you mean Dad? How could she be my mother? If she was so…so evil, how could you ever possibly love her?!” Cathran Wylde exclaimed, anger clearly showing in his voice.

“She was not always like that. She was once a young and beautiful and cared only for doing what was right. I am not sure what happened but one day she disappeared for months, and I began to fear that she was dead. When she returned she was holding you and she had changed. She no longer believed in what was right or just, only that humanity was lost and needed to be culled and rebred. When she died, she made me swear to protect you at all costs for you held the ability to save man-kind.”

“Are you saying, that I am not your son, that my mother was some crazy witch who wanted to kill most of humanity and start over? Are you saying that I am to be the one person to cause all of this to happen?”

“No, you ARE my son, by blood and otherwise as well. Only she took off after she became pregnant and did not return until after you were born. I remember when she brought you in, your eyes staring curiously at anything and everything. I knew then that you had the potential to be great, and now…this book shows that someone else does too. You, my son, are to save man-kind but you must walk some very dark and terrifying roads before you can save anyone. First off, you must find the man who sent this book, he was your mother’s brother…your uncle. He lives in Paragoar many leagues from here.” And with that, Zro rose from his chair and embraced his son. It was about to begin.