Introductions

Sheer darkness.

Suddenly, a small dot of dark purple. Space seems to bend slightly, and a gust of wind later, Kayrin stands with her childe. The effect is done, and again, darkness.

The child hugs Kayrin close, seemingly afraid of the dark. Kayrin smiles at the thought, and produces a flashlight, which she hands to the child. "I wish I had some of these back in the day..." she mutters under her breath.

The child seems to feel around it, not knowing what was thrust into her hands, but quickly figures it out and lights it. Strong halogen light slices the darkness, showing a tunnel of stone. The tunnel is definitely not natural, though, as the walls are made of worked stone blocks, with designs and variations near the top and bottom. Like a temple passage.

The tunnel, seemingly empty, allows the child to relax and ease off of Kayrin, though still keeping close. Kayrin looks around, looks at the child. She sees fear in her eyes, but also control, and amazement. Like she knows she's in a dream, and, although a bit scared, likes the dream, and so she pushes on.

Kayrin extends her hand to her childe, and the child, a bit hesitant, grabs for it. With a bit of difficulty, Kayrin gets the child up on her back. Kayrin, the child, and the flashlight, they all move on into the darkness.

Kayrin asks, "Thought of a name up yet, kid?"

The child shakes her head.

"You can speak, you know. I won't bite. And I'm sure you have a few questions.", comes Kayrin's remark.

"Well..." the child speaks, hesitantly. "What is your name?"

"My name is Kayrin." Kayrin smiles.

The child smiles as well, a bit shyly.

Now comes the big question. "What's going on?", the child asks, holding tightly to Kayrin's neck.

"Well," Kayrin begins, "that's actually a very good question, and it has a lot to do with you. How do you feel about the situation right now?"

The child looks puzzled for a second, then says "Well, I don't know what's going on, and this stupid darkness bothers me..." she swings the flashlight to try and eradicate the darkness, but to no avail. It simplys flows around the beam of light. "But i also feel strange, like this isn't as odd as it should be."

"Ok..." Kayrin says. "Do you like stories?"

"Well, yeah!", the child says excitedly.

Kayrin hushes the child, and she pulls back, like she was expecting to be scolded for it. Instead, Kayrin just smiles, and says "Keep your voice down, it's not exactly safe down here."

"OK.", is her reply, in an exagerated hushed voice.

Kayrin smiles, and begins her story. "A long time ago, this place we now call Earth began to form. But back then it wasn't round, or had continents like it has now, or the technology we now have. Back then, the land was very dangerous, with all kinds of hostile animals, and very treacherous terrain."

"Back then people existed, but in a different way. They lived off the land and it's bounty. They had to fight for it with the other creatures that lived there, just like it says in history books that early man was like. They lived in different towns, but had no technology to help them. Instead, they had magic."

The look of surprise on the child's face was hard to miss, and, amidst a dark tunnel that seemingly led to nowhere in both directions, it nontheless did a lot to brighten the situation.

"Now, not everyone could use magic. You had to practice it, like drawing or playing an instrument. But those who could use it could do many things. They could help others... or hurt others."

"The human race was divided on that axis, and like whenever humans find a new toy to play with, they started war over it. On one side, you had humans who specialized in healing arts, and using magic to help humanity reach a higher place in the grand scheme of things. They'll be out good guys."

"On the other side we had people who would use their magic to force others, to steal, and be generally destructive to others. They dabbled in the forbidden arts of demonology and necromancy. These will be out bad guys."

"Humanity at this point had found a way to fuse themselves with some of the magical principles they specialized in. The good guys chose for this the general aspects of magic, while the bad guys chose necromancy for this. So, in the final stages of the Principle War, you had, amidst the regular soldiers and spellcasters, the "Aliur" on the side of the good guys and the "Valkith" on the side of the bad guys."

"Now, the war had raged for a long time, and the bad guys were pretty tired of all of it. So one of them, a Valkith, decided to summon demons from Elsewhere to come and destroy the good guys. But he was wrong in thinking that he could control the demons. They came through, and destroyed most of the bad guys right then and there. They then decided to take this world for themselves, and began to change everything into a total wasteland."

"The good guys, who never dealt with demons before, were at a loss as to how to continue. They didn't know what to expect, and so, in the early years, they were decimated. The demons almost won, except for what some people would call a miracle."

"A handful of bad guys had survived, and using their experience and knowledge of demons, had established themselves in a corner to think of their next move. But being too few in number, they couldn't do much against the demons. The good guys, on the other hand, had numbers, but lacked the knowledge. Match made in heaven, right?"

"They had serious problems getting to deal with each other, humans being real vengeful. But after some talking, they got together to defend their land. They decided they would finish their fight later, as soon as they eliminated the interfering side. That is, the demons."

"Using most of the remaining force to distract the demon horde, a small group of Aliur and Valkith, including the one who did the original summoning, infiltrated the ruins of the old Valkith capital, where the original and central gate still stood."

"It was a hard battle, with much sacrifice, but the day was won. The demons had been forced back out through the gate, and the gate sealed. But a great cost was paid. Most of humanity had been lost, including it's greatest thinkers and magic users."

"Because of all the chaos and destruction that had been waged since magic was first harnessed, humanity agreed that magic only brought harm in the end, and all documents and lore pertaining to it were destroyed. The last remaining magic users in the land gathered to make one last magical effect, a huge dweomer that would cover all and revert it back to it's state before magic was discovered, with the added effect of blocking that initial magical event in the life of humanity. So, humanity collectively forgot magic."

"After that the rest is history, machines, blah blah blah." she says, tickling her childe. The kid laughs out, a very real joy in her voice. But then Kayrin kneels down, and holds her childe in front of her. "But just because people forget doesn't mean it's any less real. And especially because people forgot is why it's so dangerous. Never forget that."

Without warning, the ground starts to rumble beneath their feet, and a cluster of rocks falls from the ceiling. The child shrieks, but Kayrin soothes her. "It's ok, I won't let anything happen to you." Covering the kid with her body, Kayrin utters a word of power, and their bodies seem to become translucent. The child sees the rocks falling, and feels a sudden urge to scream, but just closes her eyes, defiantly.

When she opens her eyes again, she experiences something unique: she's in the same place the rocks are! And she sees the rock, covering her entire field of vision, but she can also see Kayrin, seeming to stand within, yet beside the rocks. Sort of shifted sideways, or something. Kayrin winks at her, and she begins to glow a crimson red. Suddenly the rocks are blasted back in all directions, only Kayrin and her child standing in the center. Kayrin becomes solid once more, and turns to the side, to stare at something.

Bright orange eyes the color of magma stare back at her.

Kayrin says, with a smile on her face. "Want to play, Celphari? You should've just said so." Her hands, glowing with eldritch energy, make out quick hand motions, and a sudden light illuminates the chamber.

And that's when she wakes up.