1- A Headache (1)

Its so warm!

Sera clutched at the soft sheets, reaching out to collect more warmth for herself. The soft rustling of cloth against cloth continued as her sleep slowly melted away into the drowsy expanse that lay on the way to waking up.
When was the last time they had slept in soft beds? Sera had gotten accustomed to sleeping in the open, on whatever was available. The past few weeks especially, as they traced Asgir's steps to the caves. For the first time in many a month, she felt content and rested. She could tell the sun was well above the horizon through her closed eye lids, but Sera just refused to let go of the soft embrace of the bed.

For once, this is going to be worth Fil's nagging.

Sera was never very good with mornings. It was Filnes' duty to wake her with a barrage of teasing, taunting, and poking. The relentless assault of heckling was seemingly sport, and the few things the wizard truly enjoyed. There was one time that Filnes let Sera sleep in as late as she wanted to. When she did finally wake up, she found her face covered in drawings that a six year old boy might have found absolutely hilarious. It took three days for the doodles to finally wash away.

Filnes smirked, and laughed that any other canvas would have woken up before his masterpiece was completed.

In a measure of self defense, Sera rolled over, and buried her face in her pillow. A pillow! How wonderful a thing it was. So much more pleasant than that permanent smirk carved into the man cut from a bolt of black cloth. Raven black hair, onyx eyes, and black clothes from head to toe. Always looking down at her. Oh what she wouldn't give for another few inches to look down at him for once!

But she had looked down at him. In the cave. Filnes, on his knee, desperately holding both his hands out, pushing back against a spell. His face twisted by pain, his smirk gone. His eyes full of consternation. Something was wrong. Dark red blood spilled across his face, as he struggled to breath. His shoulders heaved with the effort of inhaling air.

He was dying.

Sera's mind leaped back to reality.

"Fil!"
Sera's eyes bolted open, as she snapped her head up off the pillow, cracking it against something rather stiff.

"Argh!"
"Owwww!"

Sera cradled the back of her head with both her hands, and buried her face in the pillow once more. Her shoulders shook slightly, as she let the pain pass. Tears disappeared into the white pillow covers as Sera worked up the nerve to try again.

"That hurt! What do you think you're doing, Stupid!?"
"Stupid? It wouldn't have happened if you hadn't jumped up like you did."

Sera snarled at the source of her pain. He seemed taken aback by the tears welling up in Sera's eyes, and held his hands to his own forehead.

"What, its my fault your head was in my way? No, that isn't important!"
Sera once again snapped upright, and flung the covers aside to grab at the man. Shaking him as best she could, Sera asked for her friends. "Fil! What happened to Fil!? What of Kaos... and Reinhart!!?"

The man, the Chancellor of Ixan, stood fixated while being shaken. The shaking, the cries of the girl. They were nothing in comparison to the two eyes he stared into.
The right eye the deepest of blues, and the left a blood red. He had never seen a human with two different colored eyes.

Sera gave up after a few moments of frantic shaking and yelling. She wasn't going to shake the answer out of him at this rate. Instead, she'd go to someone else that she could get the answers to her questions. Letting go, she proceeded to jump off the side of the bed.

The chancellor finally came to, when Sera looked away, and moved to leave the bed. "Wait!" he cried out, as he tried to stop her. He grabbed at her arm, broke her balance, and was horrified to watch the girl crash to the floor.

"Seriously! What did I ever do to you!?"

Sera glared at the guy, who not only left a bump on the back of her head, but now a matching one on her forehead, courtesy of the quick meeting with the floor. The wonderfully thick carpet made the fall much less painful than the earlier incident, but her patience was quickly running out.

"I, I'm sorry."

The Chancellor asked Sera to take a seat on the bed, and led her with his hand. He took a deep breath to calm down. He certainly was not expecting so much to go wrong so fast.

"Sir Filnes and the others are safe."

The Chancellor knelt down in front of sera, and rested his hands softly on her shoulders. He looked once again into the blue and red eyes. He could feel the thin shoulders shaking.

"Really?"

Sera's face seemed to be confused, not sure what emotion to show. He could see she was struggling to stay in control.

"Yes, really. My name is Seel. I'm the Chancellor of this country, the Kingdom of Ixan. I'll go and bring His High... ah, Kaos for you. Could you please wait here?"

Sera hugged herself, nodding at each statement. It took some time, but Sera chewed each slow and reassuring word. When the Chancellor looked at her for acknowledgement, she made a bigger nod and agreed to wait.

Left Behind: Prologue

A quarter of a century ago, fear and death gripped the world. A single sorcerer made the entire world tremble.
A quarter of a century ago, this sorcerer was sealed away.

This sorcerer, Asgir, had once been a loyal servant and subject of the Empire of Liu. A protector of the emperor, the empire, and its people. He not once succumbed to the temptation of his power, and was thought to be a sign of the emperor's enduring just rule.


One day, Asgir changed.


He assassinated the emperor, then continued to murder each child of the emperor. His rampage continued in cold calculated brutality. Each of the mothers of the princes, every concubine, child noble or common. One by one, the emperor's blood was exterminated to the last drop. Its ruler gone, the empire fell to its surrounding neighbors in short order.

No one knows why Asgir had betrayed his oath of fealty, and rebelled against the empire.

He did not once sit or show interest in the throne after removing the emperor. He would only appear as he liked, and killed. His victims were unpredictable. It was at times the people of the Liu Empire he had once sworn to protect, and at other times invading soldiers, even the king of an invading country on occasion.
He seemed to appear and use his powers and monsters he created to kill at whim, leaving the stink of corpses in his wake.

It did not take long for the continent to fear the name of Asgir. No one was safe from him, or his monsters. He lurked in every shadow, and deep in every child's nightmares.

A band of four brought an end to that age of fear.

Kaos, the surviving knight of the lost Liu Empire. Reinhart the prince of Wilaan. The sorcerer Filnes and Sera.

The four were the best in the world.
Even the four could not kill Asgir. In the end, Filnes created a barrier to seal Asgir, anchored by Kaos and Reinhart's blessed blades. There, Sera sacrificed herself and threw Asgir and herself into the seal.

The Black Sorcerer Asgir was thus sealed away in the massive limestone caverns in the Levano mountains in the Northwest of the continent. Called the Great Seal of Levano, the caves and its once beautiful and enchanting stalagmites are gone. Shattered by the battle of years ago, the cave shows the marks of an unnatural battle, leaving only one massive stalagmite with two swords struck into it.
Kaos and Reinhart's blessed swords.

This magical seal is watched over by the kingdom of Ixan. Sent from the king seated at the foothills of the Levano Mountains, Ixani soldiers stand watch before the paired blades, and at the entrance of the cave. It wasn't known if the unbelievable power of Filnes or the periodic reinforcement of the magic seal were to credit, but nothing had ever happened to the seal.

Yet, change comes. Without forewarning.

The first change in a quarter of a century.
The first thing anyone noticed was a sound. It was too wet and heavy to be a footstep, but unmistakably coming from the stone. The soldiers one by one turned to face the limestone and the two swords.

One gasped a breath of surprise.The soldiers struggled to comprehend what they were seeing.

The cool stone surface became clouded, and wavered like a white smoke. A shadow appeared against the face of the rock, and became something they could recognize as human. Almost like a mother giving birth, a body spilled forth from the stone.

One of the soldiers breathed cursed behind clenched teeth. "The Black Sorcerer!"


--


The Great Seal of Levano was broken, and the Black Sorcerer appeared from within.
We have captured this, and have chained it within a cage.

The report reached the King of Ixan, Kaos, within hours. The knight of Liu, one of the four to challenge and defeat Asgir.
The now lord and protector of the kingdom of Ixan.
Kaos could not hide his surprise. He could remember that day in the caves vividly.

Magics beyond belief made the mountain shake. Blasts of power carved the cave walls as if it were cheese. Columns thicker than men were turned to powder with nary an effort. Even with swords that would slice steel apart, Kaos could not inflict wounds that would not heal in mere moments.

Asgir was too powerful to kill.

In the end, all they could do was sacrifice one of their own to distance Asgir from the world. If Asgir had truly escaped his prison and appeared before the world again...

Kaos brought a strained smile to his face. Not borne of mirth, but of his defeat.

Asgir's power had carved its mark on Kaos. Not Kaos, not the kingdom of Ixan, not even the entire continent had the power to stop the Black Sorcerer. There would be nothing to stand before Asgir this time.

"Get me my horse. I will go to Levano"
Kaos looked to his young chancellor as he stood up, ready to run to his horse.
There would be no time to waste.

As he strode across the courtyard, and his man prepared his armor, his eyes caught sight of something unexpected.

"My Lord, I bring you the captured the Black Sorceror Asgir!"
Called the proud young soldier.

Behind him, was a large cage used to capture monsters on a horse drawn cart. They reached the palace within an hour after the messenger, no doubt hurrying with excitement. That much was obvious in the ruddy red face and the elation in the soldier's voice. The young man proudly cast aside the large cloth covering the cage, presenting his prisoner.

Kaos breathed in sharply, and cursed the soldier's stupidity behind clenched teeth.
Bringing in something as dangerous as the Black Sorcerer near an inhabited area? The palace no less? Its been only 25 years, and yet it seemed long enough to dull soldiers into fools. The fools!

Angry beyond words, Kaos glared at the soldier. The red of excitement turned blue, as Kaos' grey eyes stared him down. A soundless yelp escaped as the soldier looked for an avenue of escape.

Kaos reached down to his sword. His hand rested on the grip, and he could only laugh at how pointless it was. His sword was only steel, without the blessing of magics. It could kill a man, but was inadequate a weapon to face a sorcerer.

Asgir could only be harmed with blessed blades. But the sorcerer had to been weakened by his escape. There was no other way that embodiment of destruction would be caught in a cage of metal. There was a sliver of hope that perhaps the sword would not be useless.

Kaos strode towards the cart and cage. He could feel his right hand shaking on his sword. The soldiers quickly parted to make a path, fearful of their king's anger.

As Kaos approached, he could finally see the form of Asgir, curled on the floor of the cage. Unconscious, the body did not stir on the cold metal floor. Manacles bound each limb, thick iron chains connecting them to the cage bars. Ropes and chains criss-crossed over the body, further securing it in place. If it were any normal prisoner, the weight of the chains alone would have been enough to make breathing difficult. The secure web of chains and ropes made it impossible to move. As his eyes quickly studied the cage, a feeling of uncertainty came over him.

This is Asgir?


What little he could see, a single hand extending out of the mass of chains was delicate. The limbs bound in black iron seemed thin and lithe. Obscured by the chains, he could still make out what could be a small and soft body covered by light green clothing. Golden locks of hair was covered in something sticky. Kaos had seen those before.

Impossible.

Kaos leaped up to the cage, both his hands on the bars, trying to catch a closer look. He couldn't see the face, as the body inside the cage was curled towards the floor. He didn't have to. He already knew who it was.

"My lord! You mustn't expose yourself!"

The chancellor called out in surprise, but his words were swept aside by his king. Still pressing his face against the bars, Kaos bellowed out orders to bring the keys.

"The key! Open this cage!"

"My lord! Opening the cage would be dangerous! Please!" The chancellor yelled as he grasped his king's shoulder. He tried to look into Kaos' face, and calm him down. The chancellor saw his reflection in the silver grey eyes, but not the madness he was afraid to see.

"Open the cage! It is not Asgir!"

Still, the chancellor furrowed his brows at his king's words. He had served his king from his birth. In his life, he had never seen his king be so agitated. Confused by this sight, the chancellor hesitated for a moment before reiterating the king's order to open the cage.

"Bring the keys!"

The soldiers petrified by fear finally seemed to find their feet at the chancellor's command, and hurried to open the locks of the cage.

Kaos watched impatiently as one by one, the heavy locks that held the chains to the bars were removed with a heavy clank. When the soldier began to undo the ropes with trembling hands, Kaos drew his sword.

"Move."

He stepped forward, and swung his sword to cut apart the thick knots. The ropes fell by twos and threes to the bright steel. As the soldiers watched in uncertainty, then terror as Kaos bent down and stepped into the cage. He knelt next to the body, and moved the chains off the body, baring the green and gold. His trembling hands reached out to hold the small figure. His hands seemed to dwarf every delicate feature. Covered in some sort of sticky fluid, Kaos took care to not slip and drop what he held. Carefully, he cradled the figure in his arms. His fingertips brushed away the golden hair over the face, as he stared with disbelief. The eyelids were locked shut, and the face was white and was cool to the touch. The body was cold as if chilled, and greedily stole the warmth from his body. Even so, Kaos was relieved to find the chest rising and falling in an even rhythm.

Tears welled in his eyes.
Kaos called to the girl, in a hoarse whisper.

"Sera..."

The girl had returned to Kaos' arms exactly as he remembered; exactly as she had been when she threw herself into the seal 25 long years ago.