Chapter One

Death is a gift. But many pursue the opposite, eternal life. There is a place in the middle where the greenery of the south and the cold desolate north meet. There are magical rocks there, almost alien. Rumors say that they belonged to the gods, fighting a war that already lasted for eternity. The rocks prevent death of the permanent kind, having this almost magnetic attraction towards the warriors of the arena, pulling them back from the maze of death.

The last great war was fought there, warriors different from what they are now, tales different from then, but how different is war?

Drunks, ladies, warriors littered the arena. A young mage breezed through the crowd, his eyes, blue, but distant, seemed to focusing a place faraway, ignoring people awaiting for the next battle to begin.

His queen was right. War of this sort is not won by numbers or strength, but rather strategy and wits.

The global council gathered all the tribes in the original first war, to ask for a truce and stop killing each other’s people. But they could not satisfy the bloodlust of the tribes and the killing kept continuing illegally. The council thus used such properties of these alien rocks to allow them to kill each other, without having any actual blood on their hands. Each major tribe would send a representative, and some random war-hungry individuals wanting to prove their worth would get mixed in the crowd of warriors.

Even if the council promised that they will ensure global peace, many still kept their armies, the fear of war catching them unprepared.

One such tribe was of the Skywrath clan. They sent their champion, the Skywrath mage, to join the first war. The Skywrath gained reputation from the war, rising in the ranks of the clans that didn’t die before council decided to do something.

Now the second war approaches and the time has come for the Skywrath to have their man enter the second war, but the first Skywrath Mage died of sickness and besides he was too old for it anyway.

It was tradition for the Skywrath to hold a selection for the Skywrath Mage position, the man that won the contest would marry a princess, or if unfortunately you already had a wife, become the head of the Skywrath royal army, which the previous Skywrath Mage choose to assume.

There was this young lad, Dragonus, he was special. He lived in the palace of Skywrath, only by the merit of his father. He was, in fact, the son of the previous Skywrath mage. He only had one goal for most of his entire life, to do what his father did. He didn’t want to live in the palace due to his father, but by being the next Skywrath Mage.

He also had another goal.

Shendelzare.

She was the eldest daughter of the royal family, and was the same age as Dragonus.

The nights they spent talking, their fathers out at war and left only teenagers stayed in the palace. The inevitable happened.

Shendelzare sneaked out after her younger sister fell asleep, flying over towards the training grounds.

Dragonus trained hard. In everything. Crafting his weapons, honing his magic, whatever it took for him to win whoever was preparing for the second war. Their dates were mostly sparring, testing out strategies that could help.

His practice room was filled with concoctions. Bottles, books. He seemed to have everything that could be purchased regarding magic or the first war’s history.

She snuck up on him. He was crafting something.

The wind whistled against her magic missile.

It was creeping towards Dragonus. It was loud. It was slow.

Did he notice it? Will I hurt him?

He was still sharpening the weapon.

“LOOK OUT!” she couldn’t stop herself.

The missile hit him square in the back and he collapsed onto the ground. She dashed over. How much power did she put into that? She held him. His eyes. Blue as ever.

But they were different. Soulless.

“Dragonus? Are you…alright?”

*poof*

The body disappeared in a cloud of blue dust.

“It was an illusion.”

It was a familiar voice.

“You ought to learn your runes better.” It proudly said, excited that he had fooled his oldest and best sparring partner.

She cried. She didn’t know why she was crying. But she was being led through a rollercoaster of emotions. Did Dragonus mean something?

The young Skywrath boy panicked.

He had never seen her like this. He moved closer to her.

She was kneeling, hands cradling an invisible object, which was a few seconds ago an illusion.

“Shelly? Your tears frighten me. I’m deeply sorry. I should have told you.”

She lifted her left hand and threw the missile again. She tried.

But before she could finish, she realized that she was bounded in a blinding white light. She was silenced.

“I did mention you should improve on your magic missile. I taught you that spell moons ago and you have not improved on it.”

“Mmmffffphhh.”

“I improved on my spell. It’s called Ancient Seal. Best thing about it; zero cast animation. ”

He was back to his proud and annoying self again.

At least that was what she thought. But… he was… She just couldn’t make up her mind on what he was. Maybe because she was silenced.

“Okay. Its 0.1 seconds. But it is still pretty damn close to zero. And you take almost three times of my casting time to raise your arm.”

Dragonus flew dangerously close to Shendelzare.

“I made this for you.”

He held the weapon in his hands. It glowed purple. It wasn’t a staff, but a crescent. Pink rims covered the curve of the blade, decorated by blue spikes, symbolizing the armor of the Skywrath. Then the cool sliver blade finished by a sharpen edge. It was good. The quality of that weapon was of an immortal.

Shendelzare was stunned, no one had ever made her such a thing. Except him.

“Why? Shouldn’t you keep this weapon of this quality for yourself?”

“It’s for you. I call it, Scree’ auk’s Talon.

His eyes radiated a blue glow of determination. He was certain that only the princess of Skywrath was fit to have that weapon. The queen-to-be. His queen.

“I’m going on a journey. To become the Skywrath Mage. I have to win the contest.”

Shendelzare fully understood what he meant.

There was a risk that another Skywrath would win and marry her. Or her sister.

“You know. We could just… get married right now. I’ll talk to father, he’ll understand. He likes you…”

“No.” he stopped her from talking.

“I lo… I like you a lot. My dearest Shelly. I have to do this properly. Like the sun that rises upon the Ghastly Eyrie, it has to be bright and shines over us with confidence. I don’t want to do this without being worthy of someone like the princess of the Skywrath.”

She nodded. She understood. After all she was there when he talked about his lofty aspirations.

“When?” she asked.

“Next week. A month before the contest that would make me worthy of the place of the Skywrath royal family. ”

“Can I just have one thing?”

Their blue eyes met, locked in each other’s gaze.

“Your wings look beautiful tonight, Shelly. Under the moonlight, I can’t help but say that your white feathers looks like the wings of an angel.”

“Anyone told you that you talk a lot?”

“Mostly you, my dearest.”

Shendelzare’s hand slowly traced the glistering wings of Dragonus, the moonlight and the wings meshed a beautiful glow of yellow.

He slowly stretched his wings blocking all of the light coming in from outside. He fixated on her eyes, the only source where light seemed to emit.

Shendelzare opened her wings.

“Your wings. If it weren’t for your eyes I’ll have to say that they are your best quality.”

Her lips moved but words didn’t come out.

With each moment, they inched closer, daring the other to make the first move. Then there was simply nowhere for them to move closer to each other.

Dragonus covered them with his wings. Feathers from the joined Skywraths were indistinguishable. Both white, both in a mess.

Dragonus knocked over his lamp, causing the whole place to only be lit by the glow of the moonlight, and the reflection from the bottles.

Red.

Yellow.

Blue.

Green.

Purple.

It reflected off their wings. But they were already in a different world. But what didn’t know was that there was another color there.

A light blue, like the color of their eyes, a pair watching from the skies.

Author: Reydaniels

Editor: Kuon

Chapter 2