Two races: humans and monsters, fought against each other in a war, which ended in the favor of the humans. They were sealed behind a magical barrier, which lets anything in, but none out. It was a group of seven mages that created this barrier, on behalf of their rulers...


(Mt. Ebott)

The human mage with the red robes was overlooking Mt. Ebott silently...while other humans couldn't sense it, he and others of his kind could: The barrier that he and the others had recently set up, then a green robed mage walked up to him.

"Elias...so this is where you are, why do you linger here? To admire our handiwork, to gain some satisfaction with imprisoning our enemy?"

Elias sighed, "No Marcus, I have no pleasure in this act, it was a war that happened so suddenly, we don't even know who started it. Guilty...Innocent? It would appear that we will never know...".

Marcus has a look that told him that he understood why he was here, overlooking Mt. Ebott, under which the monsters that weren't killed in the war were imprisoned, using magic that their order cast to keep them there. "I thought as much, they were greatly overmatched, it's hard to believe that they're gone from the surface, they didn't seem like the beings that would have any ill-will towards us..."

Elias nodded "I suppose that's why we decided to be neutral in this conflict, we didn't know what started it, although it was decided that we had to end it, Falstat was against our involvement in the fate of the defeated...such patience, perhaps too patient..."

Marcus continued that thought "So was Alaric, his integrity was well known, even before he was one of us. As was Baldin with his perseverance with not involving us in this"

Elias paused before speaking again "Although Liran was quite vocal with speaking for us getting involved, to prevent more injustice from being inflicted against the monsters than there already is."

Marcus listened to the breeze a little more before continuing "Michel thought that we were cowards to keep to ourselves when we could've done something to stop this war".

Elias closed his eyes at that, silently agreeing with this "I remember you saying that it would've been kinder to get involved in these events sooner, I wasn't so sure..."

Marcus then turned to Elias "The decider was you, three of us was for and three of us were against, it was one reason why our order has an odd number of those who are a part of it, to make sure that we don't act alone."

Elias clenched his right fist at the thought of their impossible decision, do they do something that would put a stain on their order that won't easily be cleansed or will they allow something worse to happen?... "There should have been another way..."

Marcus was puzzled by these words "Pardon?"

Elias looked at Marcus "Sorry, I was talking to myself there, let's meet up with the others."

Marcus nodded "Agreed, they'll be worried that hungry wolves have eaten us!"

Elias shook his head, he could tell that Marcus wasn't being serious about this "As if they would pose a threat to us..."

They both laughed at that thought as they walked to the rest of their order with Mt. Ebott behind them...

(Many years later...)

While Mt. Ebott was a constant over the stretches of time, the war between humans and monsters become a mostly forgotten legend, as was the role of mages in the imprisoning of the monsters under that mountain. While those mages have long since died, due to old age or by less natural causes, it makes no difference, it was that long ago.

Others have taken their places, those that had an affinity for magic, each had a specific soul trait that humans had: Patience, Bravery, Integrity, Kindness, Perseverance, Justice and Determination. They also adapted and changed with the times, utilising technology alongside their magic and even recruiting female members as certain attitudes which once existed are no longer there now, they also made sure that they blended in with their surroundings as humans have become intolerant with anything that is different, even among other humans...it beggars the question why they went to war with the monsters in the first place?

Nearby that geological landmark is the unoriginally named Ebott City, where the Red Mage Deos, a man in his early-20s is asleep at his desk at home in his modestly sized apartment, he doesn't get anything that is intended to show off or has no use, he doesn't see any reason to impress anyone, nor does he get a lot of visitors, besides other members of the Order of Seven, his shirt is red and unbuttoned with black pants, he is awoken by a buzzing from the front door, he frantically buttons his short and tidies himself up somewhat, when he rushes to find out who is waking him up, a female voice sounds annoyed "Good, you're up, now buzz me in!".

He buzzes her in and opens the door for her, Cali, the Purple Mage is standing at the doorway with her arms crossed and an annoyed look on her, she clearly has enough perseverance to put up with this, she was wearing a black t-shirt and pants with a purple hoodie and trainers, her hair is dyed purple and is done in fat pigtails "Have you forgotten what were agree to do?"

Deos still waking up "No Cali, of course not, I just worked late into the night on most of it."

Cali facepalms at this, she smiles at the fact that nothing will keep him from what he does, once he starts it...well, almost nothing

"Deos, sometimes you're took determined for your own good, I guess that's why I come 'round more than the others".

"Indeed...do you want to come inside, unless you want to do everything from here?"

Cali just smiles and shrugs at him, while putting her hands in her hoodie and walks in.

"Can I get you anything? I need to make myself something myself anyway. Deos said

Cali twirls one of her pigtails around with one of her hands thinking about it "Some tea, please...and while you wait for the water to boil, clean yourself up! You look like an extra from a Zombie movie!"

Deos realises what a mess he is and says, while leaving the water to boil "Oh right, I wasn't expecting you to arrive this early, I'd be unbearable to live with, wouldn't I?"

As he goes to clean himself up and out of her earshot, Cali sighs at what he said "I wish...".

It's clear that Cali has some feelings which are more than that which is between friends and Deos is apparently ignorant of this, although he doesn't mind her occasional childishness and certainly doesn't judge her based on what is directly in front of him, she likes this, although she's annoyed when his attention is not entirely where she truly needs it and is quick to express her anger and irritation. Alongside her affinity with magic, she brings to the Order of Seven her knowledge of computing and coding, although she keeps it simple for the less knowledgeable and is not one to brag or lets her success get to her head, if there's anything that is true about judging her physical appearance is that she's quite nerdy, although not to the extent of others that she knows, again Deos doesn't seem to mind that, in fact he considers that to be one of her good traits, she has problems speaking after hearing positive feedback from him, mostly due to the stream of emotions that she feels at those times.

A little later, Deos is cleaned up and both he and Cali are drinking their tea, they had just completed their "little project" as Cali would put it, one which could be successful where others that have failed, one that utilised a combination of technology and magic, something that needed Cali's skill with coding to check that the software was okay.

"I'm worried about you Deos..." Cali said.

"Was it about me sleeping at my desk? Because..." Deos said trying to stop her worrying, it wasn't successful.

"No, it's not that, it was after that ritual that you did that gave you this info overload, it almost caused your brain to crash!" Cali said with a tone of annoyance in her voice.

"Yes...different variations on the same theme, some nice, some...not so nice, all involving a child that has fallen down under the barrier...or has that not happened yet...?" Deos isn't sure about what he's seen, that which entered him so quickly, that he couldn't handle it. It's a miracle that he isn't insane because of that "We know how things are down there, don't we?".

Cali nods and speaks with a tone of sadness "Yeah, all because of our inside source, although we had to buy that source's silence as it could be considered 'collaborating with the enemy', if it was known who and what we were and could get them into trouble...so six of them are dead..." There is a long pause before a response is made.

Deos nods "Unfortunately...all within a relatively short period, if we had known that they had..." he stops there, the regret has caused him to speak no more about that.

Cali then finishes her tea and is standing up about to leave "Well, everything is set up, all we need to do is be in position and have everything in place for it."

Deos is sad to see her leave, but his mostly expressionless face doesn't show this "What's the rush?".

Cali smiles "He he, missing my company already...? It's not just you that needs my expertise and I'm not just talking about the others, don't worry...I tell you when I'm done, so we can meet up."

Deos "Understood."

"Paula is having a slow day today, at least by ECPD standards, she's investigating a missing child, Neil phoned them about that today, he has the patience of a saint...heck, he's just patient." she waves at him "Bye Deos." she walks out and Deos is examining the device that has been the work of multiple iterations of the Order of Seven, ever since the creation of the barrier, he places it in a protective case and then decides to look up the missing persons page out of curiosity...that's when he had a look of recognition and horror, one of the missing persons was a child, the same child that he saw in a vision of multiple chains of events, if that's the same child, then the events that he's seen are about to happen, if not in progress!


It would appear that events are accelerating quickly, but what will Deos do with this knowledge? Find out in Chapter 2: Red Handed Confrontation!