Prologue

"Trust me Shinay, I've put all my time into research for this stone. It's not a spur of the moment thing; I've imbued this stone with alchemic amplifications. The only thing I need to do now is test my theory and prove it correct." Nathan moved the green rock closer towards Shinay so that she could see it better, but she backed away, nearly falling off her chair. "Nathan… I'm not so sure I want to be here while you do this." Shinay explained with a scared tone to her voice, however, Nathan just placed the stone on the desk in front and started to draw a transmutation circle around the dead body. He picked up the fragment once again and turned towards Shinay, "Are you ready? Once I have proved that bringing someone back from the dead IS possible, we can become state alchemists together…" While he spoke, Nathan picked up the emerald and placed his hands on the transmutation circle.

The counter stayed dim, everything stood still for about two minutes until Nathan finally spoke. "I knew it."

"Knew what? You said you were ready and now the experiment has gone wrong!" Shinay barked from either fear that something else would go wrong or she was just getting impatient. Nathan peered over at her. "The circle, It needs to be more, how should I put it, difficult." Laying his hands on the table again, the chalk lines lit up and manoeuvred themselves to create a hexagon shape with many lines and engravings inside. "This should work." He continued as he took the rock again and got in position. "If it doesn't work this time… It will never work." Shinay looked frightened but she sat and watched with bravest look she could convey. "Go…"

Very forcefully, Nathan plunged his hands onto the table and instantly the whole room was engulfed in light. The few paintings on the wall started to shake and some of them even fell off. Chairs were overturned, even the ones that were being used, the two windows in the room both smashed and glass fragments were obliterated. The rug on the floor managed to be whisked into the air by some unseen force. Nathan and Shinay stood still, feet nearly stuck to the ground, their hair flying around frantically due to the force of the transmutation that was trying to be pulled off. The bright light turned to a yellowish colour. Nathan was smiling as he predicted this would be how it acted, unfortunately, just as he was getting excited, the light turned to a horrifying purple colour. The transmutation had been a failure.

"NATHAN! HELP ME!" A scream came from the left of him. He spun round just in time to see Shinay being pulled into the vortex of transmutation. She had a strong hold of the table but she was starting to give way. Her face was distraught and unbearable to watch. The base of her body was gone, sucked into the horrible conjured mess. "FOR THE LOVE OF GOD NATHAN, HELP ME!" She screamed as Nathan just stood, petrified at what was going on around him, his hands still pressed against the now overpowering hexagon shape. The only time he moved was when shinay was engulfed in the transmutation. Black stringy hands rocketed out of the ongoing spell and grabbed Nathan and pulled him closer. He retracted his hands and used them as weapons to fight off the unknown enemy. "Stay back! Keep away!" More and more hands sprung out of the transmutation until Nathan was took by force.

Both now seemed to be locked inside the transmutation.