The Guardians, chapter one "The Beginning of a War"
Salantide was the infamous city of corrupt and dark magic. Its crowded busy streets held some of the world's most powerful yet most condemned mages who practiced in the arts of using demons. At any other time people such as these would have been put down and stripped of their power by any respectable magical government, but this was a time of tension between their enemies, the swordsmen. If a little black magic meant some extra power for their side, many officials simply looked the other way. Struggles can be fought over just about anything. They can be over money or survival, love or jealousy. The fighting that would occur for the present time and for the next hundred years would be over one single thing, dominance.
The streets of Salantide's commercial district were crowded and lined with many tall stone building complexes along with many small shops and taverns. On one dusty road three things were occurring at once; a young woman was being mugged, two men were brawling it out next to a nearby tavern, and with the commotion going on a tall man had materialized unnoticed in a nearby alley way. The man wore a long flowing dark blue cloak that covered his body and face from view. The tall man placed a small cylindrical metallic object back into his cloak. The object was a universal method of teleportation called a telepolariscope. The device was powered by magic from mages, and chi (spiritual energy) from swordsmen.
The man in the cloak walked out into the crowed road and spotted the young woman that was being mugged. The tall beefy man that was mugging the young woman started to talk to her, and the man in the cloak could barely make out what he was saying, "What's a pretty girl like you're self doing out here anyway? Didn't you know it isn't safe to be in a place like this alone." He said sarcastically with a sneer. "Which unlike you," The man made a motion with his hand, "I'm not". A large figure rushed forward and slammed the woman up against a wall. The figure was the man's demon; it was a large black fox like creature with dark red eyes that walked on its hind legs. The woman seemed so beautiful and pure, so out of place in dark city such as Salantide. She wore a short white cloak and had a long wooden staff attached to her back with a leather strap. She had short black hair, soft blue eyes, and a slender body. Despite this she hadn't shown the least bit of fear, and actually appeared quite calm as the demon had her pinned. "I just hate men like you." The woman said calmly testing the strength of the demon as she tried to free herself from its grasp. "You would go to the pathetic lengths of attacking a defenseless woman." The woman was finally able to retch one of her arms free, and the demon growled angrily. "But you obviously don't know who I am." With that very arm her hand burst into a white flame that grew and flowed through her fingers which she used to strike the fox demon. The fox demon howled in pain as the flames licked and burned its body until it was just a huddled twitching mass of smoking meat on the ground. The man's expression turned from that of a triumphant hunter that had just cornered its prey to that of anger and fear. "How dare you kill my poor foxy!" The man yelled out in anger. He lunged for the young woman with all his might, his huge mass about to crash into her. The woman easily side-stepped out of the way of the man's attack so that the man was left crashing and stumbling right past her. This time the woman's hands radiated with white magical energy instead of the deadly flame. The woman struck the man from behind, delivering a powerful blow to the back of his neck. There was a loud thud as the man's body hit the ground. "Pathetic." The woman said looking down at the unconscious heap of the man on the ground and the smoking remains of his demon fox.
Many of the townspeople had fled from the scene for their lives except for the two drunken men that were fighting. The woman turned her gaze to the two men. They were common peasants. They were wrestling on the ground and were destroying anything that was getting between them. One had already smashed through a few crates of fruit that had been stacked outside a shop. "Hey morons, break it up!" The woman shouted angrily. The two men stopped to look up at the woman and both laughed. They weren't aware of the woman's true power. "Do you want to end up like this pathetic loser here?" The woman said kicking the unconscious man in the ribs. The two men got the message, scurried to their feet, and took off. All this time the tall man in the dark blue cloak had stood watching from the other side of the road. He was the only person who had stayed, and now stood out in his dark blue cloak.
Could this woman be who I have come to find? The man in the cloak thought as he watched the reached into his cloak and produced a piece of paper with a sketch on it. It was a sketch of the very same woman who had taken down the large criminal and scared off the other two men. It was none other then Estalia Firebrooks, one of the most powerful and well known mages. The man's sources had been correct, Estalia had suddenly taken a residency in Salantide. "Why is she in such a place?" the man thought with uncertainty, "Estalia has never practiced in dark magic". This very woman had recently been put up for assassination by one of the swordsmen clans best fighters, Aramis Sasaki the very man that stood and watched Estalia.
Now that Estalia had scared off the others she and Aramis were completely alone with no witnesses around. "Now's my chance!" Aramis thought. He rushed forward at Estalia. The hood of his cloak flew down with the rush of air revealing his own short matted black hair and brown eyes. As Aramis ran forward he slid his right hand behind his back and produced a long gleaming two handed sword which he raised above his head ready to attack. The sword looked so elegant for such a deadly weapon. Estalia had been watching in amusement as the two drunken men ran off, and had just barely enough time to react to Amaris's attack. Just as Aramis swung his sword at Estalia's head, Estalia swerved around to face Aramis with quick reflexes and swung out the staff she had on her back to meet Aramis's sword. There was a loud thud of metal hitting wood. Estalia's body slid backward from the force of Aramis's attack and her feet kicked up dirt from the road as she forced herself to gain traction. A sword would have easily sliced through a piece of wood, but Estalia had her own magical energy flowing though it, reinforcing it to a strength that almost matched that of the steel sword. Both fighters seemed to be evenly matched, but Aramis's was actually becoming short of breath by just trying to match Estalia's strength.
"It looks like this won't be as easy as I thought it would be." Aramis said breaking the silence. He was breathing a little heavier now as he tried to force Estalia back and gain the upper hand. "She's so much stronger then I had thought." Aramis thought. "You must be Aramis Sasaki. I don't know who sent you here, but mark my words, when I'm done killing you, I'll find who ever they are and kill them too." Estalia said forcefully. "Based on what I know and have seen about you." Aramis started to say coolly as he went in for another blow, "You wouldn't kill me, you're not like that." Estalia was taken back by his words and had a look of slight shock on her face, but she quickly shook it off. "You don't know anything about me. If you truly did you wouldn't be fighting me right now." Estalia said calmly. As Aramis rushed at her Estalia jumped straight over him. Aramis was left striking air as Estalia in mid air charged her staff with a white electrical energy. She shot off three quick shots straight at Aramis. "She's fast!" Aramis thought not having much time between missing her and her attack. Aramis swung his sword into his right hand and jammed it into the ground in order to allow him to support the heavy sword in a single hand. He raised his free hand palm up at Estalia's incoming bolts of energy. "Repulse!" Aramis yelled out strongly. His hand glowed with his chi and formed a shimmering reflective shield. The three bolts of energy hit his palm and dissipated. Aramis had been paying attention to the energy attack, and didn't have enough time to see the powerful swing of the staff coming crashing right at him. Estalia's staff hit him dead on. The hit was so powerful that Aramis went flying straight into the air and then came crashing back down onto the ground on his back with a loud thud. Close combat mages were very rare and Aramis hadn't expected to fight one, especially one so strong. Estalia took the opportunity to hit Aramis while he was down and charged right for him, her staff glowing with energy. "This isn't the time to be messing around." Aramis thought knowing he had to do something before he was pulverized. "Damn! Where's my sword?!" Aramis thought grabbing at the air around him. He needed to act quickly. As Estalia was about to strike, Aramis hit the ground with his right hand and sent a powerful amount of energy flowing through the ground. "You'll have to do better then that." Estalia yelled as she easily jumped over the wave of energy. "Just what I was expecting." Aramis said grinning. "What?" Estalia said shocked by his words. Aramis had hit the ground with his right hand, but had just as quickly used his left to send off a wave of energy straight into the air where Estalia now was. The wave of energy struck her in the side and she came crashing back down to the ground. She came crashing right into Aramis. "I didn't expect this." Aramis thought as Estalia's body collided onto his with a loud thud.
The two fighters for those few seconds on top of each other, stared into the eyes of the other. Aramis saw Estalia's soft blue eyes and could only begin to notice just how beautiful she was. All Aramis could see in those shimmering blue eyes was a sort of loneliness and longing. Estalia looked into the eyes of her attacker and felt that he wasn't someone who truly wanted to kill her or anyone, not the way his brown eyes stared back at her. "He really is handsome." Estalia thought as she stared. "What the hell am I thinking!" Estalia regained her composure, but no longer having a hold of her staff, charged her right hand with the white flames of energy. She thrust the hand close to Aramis's face. "This isn't a fight I can win and I don't want to win. I don't want to have to kill this beautiful woman." Aramis thought, not to mention the fact that Estalia's attack had broken several of his ribs. He quickly reached into his cloak. He pulled out the telepolariscope and thrust it into the ground next to him. With a blink of an eye and a quick blinding flash of light Aramis was gone, and Estalia was left alone on the dirt road. All that was left was a small patch of black smoking ground where her hand had struck and where Aramis's face had been.
Aramis stood kneeling in a large narrow room lined with chairs on either side of him. In the seats sat many of the swordsmen clan's top officials and at the front of the room where Aramis faced sat a young man that shared Aramis's brown eyes and matted black hair. He was their leader and looked rather angry. "Aramis explain to me why it is that you have failed!" the man boomed down at Aramis. "Brother I'm sorry." Aramis started to say. "I've told you before, don't call me brother!" the man replied angrily. "I'm sorry Deremis." Aramis said apologetically. "Now answer me why is it that you failed to kill Estalia Firebrooks as ordered?" Deremis asked his voice not having calmed down at all. The mere mention of her name brought Aramis back to a vision of her face. It distracted and clouded his thoughts. Aramis was left speechless. He knew exactly what the answer was to Deremis's question, but he knew he couldn't answer him, he was in love.
Estalia was sitting in a very elegant looking dining room with another woman. "Are you sure that you are all right? You seem rather distracted and out of it ever since you're encounter with Aramis Sasaki." The woman asked Estalia. Estalia looked up from her gaze out a nearby window to meet that of the woman's. "Did you say something Kathryn?" Estalia asked. "Is something distracting you? Did you meet someone? Are you in love? Who's the lucky guy?" Kathryn asked jokingly. This was no joke. Estalia felt like there was a rock in her stomach. "Is this what this is? Am I really in love?" She felt her uneasy feeling grow worse. "I'm a mage and he's a swordsman. This kind of thing is forbidden and would be considered treason." "Estalia you don't look too well and you're not listening again." Kathryn said with a mix of compassion and frustration. Only three words were able to escape Estalia's trance as she stared wide eyed at Kathryn, "I'm in love."
An old man stood in a classroom with four children as he read from a large dusty history book. The old man looked up from the book and finished what he had started to tell the children. "Once their forbidden love was found out, both sides broke out in war, it would be the worst war in history." A young boy with blue eyes and black matted hair raised his hand and quickly interrupted. "Second." the boy said. "What was that Jonathan? The Second what?" The old man asked. "That was the second worst war." Jonathan replied. Sudden silence swept the room ,as the children and teacher stared at him. Jonathan added, "It's my fault that we have the first."