The Wizard's Tower stood cold and dark in the late evening light. Only one man was inside, a short but stout guardian of the sacred book of rites. The man was on the ground floor, preparing for the long night by the vault. Overhead, the sun was only a few minutes from setting. The man pulled a small book from his pocket. The book, bound with premium leather and black from dye and age, had glowing blue letters and shiny pages. It was not the book of rites, it was his families ancient spell book. He opened the cover and began to read the words inside, the bold magically never fading letters consuming his interest. After a while, the sun disappeared from the sky and he stopped reading, unable to make out the words in the dark. As he moved to light a torch, he heard a crash from upstairs. He grabbed and lit one of the oak torches, and cautiously slipped towards the ancient stone stairs. He put his spell book in his pocket and silently crept up the elegantly carved granite stairway. He walked on to the second floor, his torch illuminating the hallway. He looked in every room but saw nothing out of the ordinary. Knowing the crash must have come from farther above, he hurried to the top floor as quietly as he could. Before he reached the top of the stairs, he heard a quiet chanting: "From hell below, comes thy servant, To do thy bidding of pain and torment, In 1000 years you rise again, Se' Forcher Leia Ciama Cen, To rise a sacrifice is needed, Your will, o master, will be heeded, One million souls, to feed your spirit, One world destroyed, I do not fear it, Come now, from the depths of Hell, Greiva, learnea, gresna--" He had heard enough. He raised his burning torch. "Stop in the name of the king!" He threw the torch, but it had no affect. He saw who was chanting. It was a small man, with no hair and wearing blood red robes that reflected strangely in the torch light. The man was hunched over the sacred book of rites, though the guard had no idea how he had gotten it through the vault. The vault was solid steel that took 40 men 2 months to make. Until it was blown apart by a small man. Scattered bits of steel littered the floor, and could be very dangerous if you stepped on them. They glinted dangerously in the firelight. "-- Cell" The guard knew this completed the chant, and he had only seconds to react. So he thought. The book of rites exploded into a glowing inferno. The fireball grew larger, burning straight through everything in its path including the bits of steel and the monk. The guard ran to the door, which was already becoming hot from the flames. He pushed the door open and ran through the hall, stumbling in the dark. He bumped into the walls three times before making it to the stairs he tripped and fell on his face. The hair on the back of his was hot, near burning. He turned around and saw a horrible sight. The fireball had grown much larger and was advancing much faster. The guard never made it down the stairs. The fireball grew larger and larger, easily destroying the tower and advancing farther. It burned everything to the ground, leaving little behind. In a matter of minutes, the whole land had been burned, at which point the fireball vanished. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 999 years, 356 days later* -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Valerie Barker stared at the waves. She always came to her special spot whenever work got her down, which was often. Today she had been looking at a site where they had thought they had found proof of God, but alas, it was a prank. She walked along the cliff until she hit something with her foot, tripped and fell. She got up and looked at what she had tripped on. She saw a round foundation of stones, with a few chunks of granite. Stairs, maybe? She began walking home to call her team... To be continued *This part of the story is set in 2008, which is a leap year, meaning the end of the year comes at 366 days, not 365, so it is 10 days until the 1000 year mark.
