Prologue
The night
roared. A young lady ran, grasping at
branches for support and hopping to avoid insidious roots. To simply say she was running would be
misleading for the half sprint, half scramble was the kind of running your body
can only do when fueled by stark, unrestrained terror. Behind her a large willow tree splintered in
half from the blade of one of the dark horsemen. The black sword swallowed the light around
it, engulfing what little light permeated the thick canopies above. His horse, a dark, thick black beast, had
eyes that glowed red—unnatural, and full of wild fury.
Tears fell from the
young woman’s large aquamarine eyes leaving trails of cleared dust. Blood trickled down her arms from where she
had thrown herself through a barbed thicket moments before. Despite the overwhelming fright of the
situation, in the back of her mind she knew she could not afford to fail. For the world as she knew it would forever
fall into chaos. She focused her mind
and turned around to face her attacker.
Silently, she muttered a few words and threw her hands in front of
her. As she did so, water began to
coalesce out of the air into long pointed masses. Ice crept along the globules turning the floating
water into deadly blades of ice. She
lifted her head and looked into the black lifeless eyes of the horseman. “Shardstorm.” The words came like a torrent of power from
her mouth and activated the spell. The
magic enhanced ice easily shredded the man’s armor and mortally wounded him,
throwing him off his steed. Without a
moment’s stalling, the young lady turned around and once again continued down
the thick, forested valley. She had now killed two of them: The Dark Order. The first had fallen prey to a hastily placed
ice trap she had cast after escaping their lair.
She hadn’t planned
on discovering them; she simply was exploring the forest south of the Grand
Capital, Alestia and came across an unusual gathering of rocks. As she neared she had noticed some magical
barriers around them and curiosity had overwhelmed what little sense of self-preservation
she possessed. Indeed, she was somewhat
of a reckless child, but her aptitude and skill in magic had kept her both safe
and well over confident. Using some
magic threading techniques she had disabled the traps and entered the cavern as
the rocks parted. There, tucked in a
corner at the top of the cave, she had learned dark secrets and plans that
threatened the peace of the entire nation.
They discovered her spying as she tried to escape back out and began the
deadly chase.
Her mind now raced,
trying to determine an escape. Killing
two of them would hardly slow the chase, but it bought her some time. Ahead, a small clearing in the woods opened
up. A large sword crashed through a tree
to her left and she dashed out of the forest onto the banks of a large
lake. Two more riders behind her slashed
at the foliage to get to her. Quickly
she scanned the banks. To her despair,
hundreds of dark clad wizards and archers began to emerge along the
lakeside. She had run out of options and
dove into the lake. An arrow zipped past
her thigh as she swam, clipping her skin and drawing blood. Another arrow pierced her shoulder and she
gasped, nearly losing all her oxygen.
Her blood floated up around her.
If she came up for air, she knew, she would die.
And so she turned to her final and most
desperate resort. The spell was
forbidden, and by all rights she should never have known of its existence. Her adventurous curiosity had uncovered more
than a few hidden secrets. She recited the
complex spell in her mind, taking care to set the spell up carefully. Slowly, each cell in her body began to freeze
as the time-defying spell froze her legs, then her arms, then her chest and
finally her head. Her consciousness began
to fade as she poured the last bit of magic into preserving her life. Her body, devoid of any air, sank to the
bottom of the lake, far away from the light of the sun. Her mind began to black out as questions
floated through her head: Would she ever
be found? Would she be found in
time?
The dark order
checked the shores thoroughly for any sign of the intruder. Blood was found on the surface of the lake
and the young girl was declared dead and the search called off. As quickly as it came, the darkness that made
the pitch black night look bright faded away into the dark forests.
In the dark the maiden lies,
With
secrets black, the frozen sighs
Until
the time, The Weaver’s fight
Will shatter then—eternal night
