Prologue
Azgaedia struck down the last of the rebels with a bolt of lightning, vaporizing the rebels into ashes. Turning the ground into a field of death and sorrow, destroying Tanica’s its last hope. Azgaedia turned away. At that same moment a boy by the name of Azgaidin, far off to the west, saw a bolt of light in the distance as he pulled the cart towards the small village known as Techi village to trade a meagre amount of crop to the local market. Techi village was a small town on the borders of Doran and Randoth. It was a small island right in the middle of the river Sangi that separated the borders.
Chapter 1
As Azgaidin pulled a cart of mangled wheat into the village looking at the children playing on the village green, wishing he could join in and have some fun, but his father had taken to bed sick and he had no other family. So for the last few months Azgaidin had, had to give up being a child even though he was only thirteen and should still be playing with his friends and acting like the village clown. He was not happy but the rest of the village acted like nothing had happened because everyone in the village had disliked Azgaidin’s father because in the months before he had become ill, Azgaidin’s father had let a band of roving bandits on to the island in hope of getting food. He ultimately betrayed the whole village. But in the end the people drove the bandits off the island. However the bandits were not the only people that had casualties in that fight. Just before the people banished Godda the bandit, Azgaidin’s father, had taken to bed sick with a fierce fever, it was a wonder that he was still breathing. The children had not even realized what had happened until the next morning when the whole village was mourning their losses and cursing Godda. Even after they realized nothing could stop children from playing, even in the worst of winters like this year where bandits roved the river and wolves attacked every second night. Throughout these tough winters the people of Techi village refused to lower their spirits, partying to the hours of dawn as though it was the harvest festival.
The people reminded Bel of her mother and father who both had died when their family was sailing along the river Sangi. Bel had been caught behind by one of the creatures from the rift who now governed all of Tanica with an iron fist. Destroying people’s lives everyday but for some reason these creatures had not even attempted to take over the island. So when Bel and her family had been caught by the rift creature it had tore our boat apart and before Bel’s very eyes ripped her parents into two pieces with its gigantic claws, when Bel had seen this she had passed out and floated to shore. Because when she awoke she was in one of the houses at Techi village being fed by old granny, no one knew her real name because when she was born her mother had died and her father had disappeared before anyone named her, so she had just become that girl, well that’s what she told everyone anyway. Some of the people that lived in Techi village were very mysterious but they acted like everyone else, participating in festivals and drinking at the tavern. After Bel had been orphaned she had been taken in by old granny and ever since she has lived with her, helping her out around the house with the cleaning and cooking. Some nights she just stared at the river hoping her parents would pull up in their boat and take her home like nothing had ever happened. But she knew that it was just a fantasy. Living with old granny wasn’t so bad but she wished she had her mum and dad still alive with her. My name is Bel
The village kids were still playing as Azgaidin brought the last cart of wheat in for the day, but the day was not over for he still had to bath and feed his father, sometimes wondering if killing him would make living any easier. Out of the corner of his eye he saw Bel staring at him looking as if she was in deep thought, wandering over to her Azgaidin saw that she had seen him and was starting to walk away, but he had had enough of everyone ignoring him so he chased after her. Getting some fatal stares from some of the villagers, he chased her into old granny’s house but once in there I found a maze-like hallway branching off into what seemed fifty different directions, but he knew that it had to be an illusion because from the outside it was barely a cottage and couldn’t hold more than three separate rooms. In the hallway to the left the sound of fading footsteps sounded against polished wooden floor. Following her Azgaidin started sprinting down the hallway at a breakneck pace; he was the fastest in the village after all. As the sound retreated even though he was sprinting as hard as he could, she was getting away and he had no idea how she was doing it. After a few minutes he had lost Bel completely, she must have been a lot faster than she had been letting on when she had arrived over five years ago. But as he took a couple of more steps he realized he was in a huge cavern with stacks of books lying all over the floor and all these different kind of runes that looked as though they were from the age of the ancients scribed into the wall, but that is very unlikely considering the age of the ancients was over two millennia ago, well that’s what some of the books in the library had in them anyway but he didn’t think that all the books were actually reliable because they had seemed to of been made by a third-rate scribe who didn’t care if the ink blotted in every second word and the page was made of cheap tough-leaf. But the books on the floor seemed nothing like the books in the library, their covers were made of tough leather and scribed on parchment by what seemed a master scribe. As he flicked through one of the books old granny walked in from the hallway that I know saw was on a slant, so that was how old granny’s house was so big even though it was tiny. As he turned to face her, he received a cold stare and suddenly found himself back in the entrance to her house. “What are you doing here you could ruin everything, this has taken years to plan and then you come in chasing Bel through as though you’re a little kid. It’s taken me years to get her ready for training and now you go and scare her back into her shell. Do you know long this has taken me?” Opening his mouth to answer, he began forming words in my mind but he didn’t even get a chance to respond because she kept on going “She was to be initiated into the coven tonight but know she will probably lock herself in her room crying until the gods know when.”
Recovering Azgaidin began backing away to try and make a run for it but then he realized that old granny was not making any sense at all, ranting on about some coven and gods as if anyone had believed in them since ancient times when people didn’t even know how to light a fire. Azgaidin went to tell her that she was going crazy and ranting on about unreal things. But then she gave a gasp of disbelief and gave me that same cold stare and we were back in the cavern from before, Azgaidin was about to run away but as if she read my mind she somehow froze me in mid air and just started studying me as if I was a good book and she wanted to get it all done in one sitting, and then that look of disbelief appeared on her face again.
“What are you doing to me, stop it!!!!!!!” And as he screamed everything seemed to shatter.
